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 - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Eurobrand Brill in the sector have low bargaining power. United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Eurobrand Brill to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Eurobrand Brill is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Eurobrand Brill is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
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.
Learning organization
- Eurobrand Brill is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Eurobrand Brill is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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 -
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Eurobrand Brill supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Eurobrand Brill vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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.
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.
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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson suggests that, Eurobrand Brill is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Eurobrand Brill has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Eurobrand Brill has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Eurobrand Brill has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
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 -
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.
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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Eurobrand Brill can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Eurobrand Brill can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Loyalty marketing
– Eurobrand Brill has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eurobrand Brill can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eurobrand Brill operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Eurobrand Brill can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eurobrand Brill can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 -
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Eurobrand Brill will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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.
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.
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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Eurobrand Brill.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eurobrand Brill can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
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.