Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market
This is part of the subset of Ivey cases and technical notes written for Introductory-Level courses.A successful Canadian jewelry manufacturer and distributor contemplates entering the U.S. market and how best to do it. Students are required to: 1) identify costs relevant to the decision and categorize them as either investments, fixed costs or variable costs; 2) calculate unit contribution, contribution-margin ratio and weighted-average-contribution-margin rates; 3) perform a breakeven analysis and interpret its meaning using relevant parameters; 4) project profitability of a chosen distribution strategy; and 5) perform sensitivity analysis with respect to the expected sales level. Students are required to understand and analyse the opportunities and risks associated with entering a new geographic market and combine their qualitative and quantitative analysis when deciding which distribution strategy to pursue.
Swot Analysis of "Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market" written by Elizabeth M.A. Grasby, Nina Gupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Contribution Margin facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial analysis, Marketing and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Contribution Margin, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Contribution Margin 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Contribution Margin
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 Contribution Margin
Strengths Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Contribution Margin in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Contribution Margin is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Contribution Margin to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Contribution Margin to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Contribution Margin 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Contribution Margin 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 Contribution Margin in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Contribution Margin in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Contribution Margin 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 Contribution Margin is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Contribution Margin is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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
– Contribution Margin 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Contribution Margin digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Contribution Margin 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Contribution Margin 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Contribution Margin is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market are -
Need for greater diversity
– Contribution Margin 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Contribution Margin 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Contribution Margin has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Contribution Margin even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market, in the dynamic environment Contribution Margin has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Contribution Margin has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Contribution Margin 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Contribution Margin, firm in the HBR case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market, it seems that the employees of Contribution Margin 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.
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 Contribution Margin supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Contribution Margin vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Contribution Margin 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Contribution Margin is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market | 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Contribution Margin 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Contribution Margin 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Contribution Margin to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Contribution Margin is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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.
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. Contribution Margin 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. Contribution Margin 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Contribution Margin can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Contribution Margin 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 Contribution Margin to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Contribution Margin 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Contribution Margin 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Contribution Margin 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.
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. Contribution Margin can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Contribution Margin 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Contribution Margin 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.
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 Contribution Margin 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.
Threats Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market are -
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.
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 Contribution Margin 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. Contribution Margin 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
– Contribution Margin 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Contribution Margin 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Contribution Margin has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Contribution Margin 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Contribution Margin with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Contribution Margin in the Global Business industry. The Global Business industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Environmental challenges
– Contribution Margin 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. Contribution Margin can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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. Contribution Margin 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.
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 Contribution Margin in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market, Contribution Margin 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Foxy Originals - Expansion into the U.S. Market 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 Contribution Margin needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
