Case Study Description of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge
The case, set within the European organization of a giant multinational breakfast foods company, describes a launch decision for a new cereal product. As the case evolves, the decision has major strategic and organizational implications for Lora Brill, European VP. The case focuses especially on two important decisions facing Brill: Should Healthy Berry Crunch become the company's first Eurobrand and be introduced in a coordinated manner Europewide? And, from an organizational perspective, should she create Eurobrand Teams to implement her proposed Eurobrand concept?
Authors :: Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson
Swot Analysis of "United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge" written by Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eurobrand Brill facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational structure, Strategy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eurobrand Brill, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eurobrand Brill operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eurobrand Brill
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Eurobrand Brill
Strengths United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eurobrand Brill in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Eurobrand Brill is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Eurobrand Brill has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Eurobrand Brill to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Eurobrand Brill has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Eurobrand Brill is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Eurobrand Brill
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Eurobrand Brill does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Eurobrand Brill has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eurobrand Brill in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Eurobrand Brill has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Eurobrand Brill has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Eurobrand Brill is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Eurobrand Brill in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eurobrand Brill has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Eurobrand Brill are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Weaknesses United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Eurobrand Brill needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Eurobrand Brill has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Eurobrand Brill has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Eurobrand Brill is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Eurobrand Brill 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Eurobrand Brill products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Eurobrand Brill needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Eurobrand Brill is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, it seems that the employees of Eurobrand Brill don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study mentions - Eurobrand Brill takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Eurobrand Brill has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Eurobrand Brill, firm in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Eurobrand Brill can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Eurobrand Brill in the consumer business. Now Eurobrand Brill can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Eurobrand Brill to increase its market reach. Eurobrand Brill will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Eurobrand Brill to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Developing new processes and practices
– Eurobrand Brill can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Eurobrand Brill can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Eurobrand Brill can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Eurobrand Brill has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Eurobrand Brill to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Eurobrand Brill to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Eurobrand Brill to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Eurobrand Brill in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Eurobrand Brill can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Eurobrand Brill has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Eurobrand Brill to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study. Eurobrand Brill can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Eurobrand Brill can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, Eurobrand Brill may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Eurobrand Brill is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eurobrand Brill has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eurobrand Brill needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Eurobrand Brill in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Eurobrand Brill needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Eurobrand Brill can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Eurobrand Brill business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Eurobrand Brill can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Eurobrand Brill high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Eurobrand Brill needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eurobrand Brill can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge .
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Eurobrand Brill demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Eurobrand Brill needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.