Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road
Covers President Lula's challenges to reduce "Brazil cost" and grow like other BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Experts agreed that for Brazil to grow like other BRIC countries, the Brazilian government would have to reduce the cost of doing business in the country ("Brazil cost"). At the same time, President Lula's challenge is to develop programs that accelerate growth without undermining the progress achieved in reducing inequality and poverty. Can the Brazilian government reverse inequality and grow at the same time? What development strategy should Lula follow in his second term? Does Brazil belong in BRIC? What do these countries have in common?
Swot Analysis of "Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road" written by Aldo Musacchio includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bric Brazil facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economic development, Economics, Emerging markets, Government, Growth strategy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bric Brazil, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bric Brazil 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bric Brazil
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 Bric Brazil
Strengths Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bric Brazil in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bric Brazil has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bric Brazil 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bric Brazil 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.
Learning organization
- Bric Brazil 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 Bric Brazil is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Bric Brazil has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bric Brazil in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bric Brazil to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bric Brazil to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bric Brazil has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bric Brazil in the sector have low bargaining power. Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bric Brazil to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Bric Brazil is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bric Brazil digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bric Brazil has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bric Brazil is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bric Brazil 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bric Brazil 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bric Brazil 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bric Brazil is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bric Brazil, firm in the HBR case study Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road HBR case study mentions - Bric Brazil 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Bric Brazil has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bric Brazil 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bric Brazil 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bric Brazil 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road, it seems that the employees of Bric Brazil 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.
Opportunities Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road | 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bric Brazil has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bric Brazil to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road case study. Bric Brazil can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Bric Brazil to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bric Brazil can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bric Brazil 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. Bric Brazil can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bric Brazil 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bric Brazil to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bric Brazil 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bric Brazil can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bric Brazil to increase its market reach. Bric Brazil 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.
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. Bric Brazil can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bric Brazil 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. Bric Brazil 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. Bric Brazil 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bric Brazil 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bric Brazil is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road are -
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 Bric Brazil.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bric Brazil has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bric Brazil 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.
Increasing wage structure of Bric Brazil
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Bric Brazil.
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. Bric Brazil needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Bric Brazil 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. Bric Brazil can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Bric Brazil in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Bric Brazil can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Bric Brazil business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bric Brazil 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Bric Brazil needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Global Business industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bric Brazil 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bric Brazil is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Brazil Under Lula: Off the Yellow BRIC Road 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 Bric Brazil needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
