ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People
With the world's population estimated to grow by 40% by 2050, an additional supply of grains, meat and dairy products would be required. Concerns over the global food supply have increased. Also, with China's growing urbanisation and increase in per capita incomes, there was additional pressure on the demand for food products. However, with arable land being fixed and in short supply the constraint on the supply side was more acute. The issue of food shortages was taken a lot more seriously in China than it was in other countries around the world, because the Chinese government's memories of the Great Famine in China between 1958 and 1961 were still too recent to take the matter lightly.
Swot Analysis of "ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People" written by Carola Ramon-Berjano, Marcus Schuetz includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Supply Food facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Supply Food, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Supply Food 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Supply Food
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 Supply Food
Strengths ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Supply Food in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Supply Food
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Supply Food does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Supply Food 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 Supply Food is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Supply Food is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Supply Food has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Supply Food 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.
Analytics focus
– Supply Food 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 Carola Ramon-Berjano, Marcus Schuetz 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.
Training and development
– Supply Food has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Supply Food 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Supply Food 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Supply Food to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Supply Food to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Supply Food is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Supply Food is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Supply Food 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People, it seems that the employees of Supply Food 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 Supply Food, firm in the HBR case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Supply Food 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Supply Food 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Supply Food products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Supply Food needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Supply Food 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, Supply Food 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 Supply Food has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Supply Food is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Supply Food is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People | 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People are -
Manufacturing automation
– Supply Food 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, Supply Food 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Supply Food can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Supply Food 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Supply Food is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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.
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. Supply Food can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Supply Food 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, ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Supply Food has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Supply Food to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People case study. Supply Food 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
– Supply Food 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Supply Food to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Supply Food to increase its market reach. Supply Food 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.
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 Supply Food 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Supply Food 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 Supply Food to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Supply Food can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Supply Food 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.
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. Supply Food can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Supply Food with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Supply Food 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Supply Food 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.
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. Supply Food needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Supply Food is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Supply Food in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Supply Food.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Supply Food 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People .
Increasing wage structure of Supply Food
– 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 Supply Food.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People, Supply Food 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 .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 ChinaA´s Challenge to Feed Its People 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 Supply Food needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
