Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey
Explores the life, work, and achievements of Milton S. Hershey. Analyzes his entrepreneurial achievements, including the creation of the Hershey bar, the founding of the business, and the development of the mass market for chocolate. Also investigates the broader contributions that Milton Hershey made to a sustainable, mutually beneficial social contract between business and community.
Swot Analysis of "Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey" written by Nancy F. Koehn, Erica Helms includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hershey Milton facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Marketing, Social enterprise, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hershey Milton, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hershey Milton 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hershey Milton
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 Hershey Milton
Strengths Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hershey Milton in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hershey Milton in the sector have low bargaining power. Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hershey Milton to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hershey Milton is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hershey Milton is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hershey Milton digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hershey Milton 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Hershey Milton is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hershey Milton 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hershey Milton is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Hershey Milton has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hershey Milton to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hershey Milton to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Hershey Milton
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hershey Milton does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hershey Milton 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
– Hershey Milton has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hershey Milton to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey, it seems that the employees of Hershey Milton 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hershey Milton 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hershey Milton is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Hershey Milton 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hershey Milton 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hershey Milton, firm in the HBR case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nancy F. Koehn, Erica Helms suggests that, Hershey Milton 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hershey Milton products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hershey Milton needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Hershey Milton 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey, in the dynamic environment Hershey Milton has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hershey Milton has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey | 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hershey Milton 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.
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 Hershey Milton in the consumer business. Now Hershey Milton can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Hershey Milton 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hershey Milton 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hershey Milton can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hershey Milton has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hershey Milton to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey case study. Hershey Milton can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hershey Milton is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hershey Milton 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 Hershey Milton to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hershey Milton 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.
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. Hershey Milton can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hershey Milton 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
– Hershey Milton 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hershey Milton 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 Hershey Milton 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.
Threats Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey are -
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 Hershey Milton business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hershey Milton can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Hershey Milton
– 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 Hershey Milton.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hershey Milton 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.
Environmental challenges
– Hershey Milton 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. Hershey Milton can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hershey Milton has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hershey Milton 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hershey Milton with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey, Hershey Milton 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 .
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 Hershey Milton in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hershey Milton 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hershey Milton is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hershey Milton 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey .
Regulatory challenges
– Hershey Milton 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Candy Land: The Utopian Vision of Milton Hershey 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 Hershey Milton needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.