Swot Analysis of "Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act" written by Joseph B. Lassiter, Michael J. Roberts includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dessert Plan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate communications, Entrepreneurship, Reorganization, Strategic planning, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dessert Plan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dessert Plan 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dessert Plan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dessert Plan
Strengths Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dessert Plan in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dessert Plan 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dessert Plan 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act - 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 Dessert Plan in the sector have low bargaining power. Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dessert Plan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Dessert Plan 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 Dessert Plan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Dessert Plan 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 Dessert Plan in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dessert Plan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dessert Plan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dessert Plan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dessert Plan 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.
Training and development
– Dessert Plan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dessert Plan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dessert Plan 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
– Dessert Plan 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 Joseph B. Lassiter, Michael J. Roberts 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.
Weaknesses Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Dessert Plan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dessert Plan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joseph B. Lassiter, Michael J. Roberts suggests that, Dessert Plan is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dessert Plan 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
Dessert Plan 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Dessert Plan has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dessert Plan 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 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 Dessert Plan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dessert Plan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dessert Plan is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act, in the dynamic environment Dessert Plan has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dessert Plan has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Dessert Plan 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.
Opportunities Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act | 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Dessert Plan can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dessert Plan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dessert Plan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dessert Plan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dessert Plan 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dessert Plan 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. Dessert Plan 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dessert Plan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dessert Plan 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dessert Plan to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dessert Plan 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dessert Plan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dessert Plan to increase its market reach. Dessert Plan 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Dessert Plan can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Dessert Plan in the consumer business. Now Dessert Plan can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dessert Plan 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Threats Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act are -
Regulatory challenges
– Dessert Plan 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dessert Plan demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Dessert Plan
– 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 Dessert Plan.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dessert Plan in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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 Dessert Plan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dessert Plan 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
– Dessert Plan 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dessert Plan 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act, Dessert Plan may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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. Dessert Plan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Dessert Plan 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. Dessert Plan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 Dessert Plan in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dessert Plan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dessert Plan needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Business Plan for Room for Dessert: Adding Unique Ingredients to Life's Balancing Act 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 Dessert Plan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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