Swot Analysis of "Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Kevin Allison includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Soybean Farmer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Soybean Farmer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Soybean Farmer 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Soybean Farmer
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 Soybean Farmer
Strengths Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Soybean Farmer in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Soybean Farmer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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
– Soybean Farmer is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Soybean Farmer 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Soybean Farmer 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Soybean Farmer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Soybean Farmer has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Soybean Farmer 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 Soybean Farmer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Soybean Farmer 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 Soybean Farmer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Soybean Farmer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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.
Training and development
– Soybean Farmer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Soybean Farmer 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 brand equity
– Soybean Farmer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Soybean Farmer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Soybean Farmer is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Soybean Farmer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Soybean Farmer 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Soybean Farmer 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Soybean Farmer has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version HBR case study mentions - Soybean Farmer 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Soybean Farmer 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Soybean Farmer 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 Soybean Farmer, firm in the HBR case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Soybean Farmer has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version | 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Soybean Farmer 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Soybean Farmer 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Soybean Farmer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Soybean Farmer 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, Soybean Farmer 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, Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Soybean Farmer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Soybean Farmer 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, Soybean Farmer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Soybean Farmer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Soybean Farmer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Soybean Farmer 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Soybean Farmer can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Global Business segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Soybean Farmer 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 Soybean Farmer to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Soybean Farmer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Soybean Farmer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version case study. Soybean Farmer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Soybean Farmer 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. Soybean Farmer 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.
Threats Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Soybean Farmer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Soybean Farmer 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.
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. Soybean Farmer needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version, Soybean Farmer 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Soybean Farmer 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version .
Regulatory challenges
– Soybean Farmer 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.
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 Soybean Farmer.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Soybean Farmer 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
– Soybean Farmer 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.
Increasing wage structure of Soybean Farmer
– 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 Soybean Farmer.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Soybean Farmer 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Soybean Farmer is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Soybean Farmer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Global Farmer and the Future of Soybean Production, Spanish Version 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 Soybean Farmer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
