Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?
Case B describes the aftermath of Ben & Jerry's being acquired by Unilever. While there was public sadness and dismay over the socially responsible company appearing to "sell out," Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield tried to put it in the best possible light: "Under this new arrangement, Ben and Jerry's will be independently operated, our values will continue and we hope our efforts to make positive change will even expand. Unilever has contractually agreed to increasing socially beneficial activities as a percentage of sales every year. Ben and Jerry's will be doing more good than it does today."
Authors :: Pat Werhane, Robert J. Sack, Jenny Mead
Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Tags :: Mergers & acquisitions, Negotiations, Public relations, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?" written by Pat Werhane, Robert J. Sack, Jenny Mead includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ben Jerry's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions, Negotiations, Public relations, Social responsibility and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ben Jerry's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ben Jerry's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ben Jerry's
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 Ben Jerry's
Strengths Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ben Jerry's in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Ben Jerry's 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 Ben Jerry's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ben Jerry's 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ben Jerry's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ben Jerry's in the sector have low bargaining power. Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ben Jerry's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ben Jerry's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ben Jerry's 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ben Jerry's 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ben Jerry's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ben Jerry's 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 Pat Werhane, Robert J. Sack, Jenny Mead 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.
Learning organization
- Ben Jerry's 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 Ben Jerry's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ben Jerry's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ben Jerry's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ben Jerry's 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ben Jerry's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ben Jerry's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ben Jerry's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ben Jerry's has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Ben Jerry's even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Need for greater diversity
– Ben Jerry's has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben Jerry's 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?, in the dynamic environment Ben Jerry's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ben Jerry's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pat Werhane, Robert J. Sack, Jenny Mead suggests that, Ben Jerry's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ben Jerry's, firm in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ben Jerry's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ben Jerry's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ben Jerry's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ben Jerry's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?, 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.
Opportunities Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? | 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ben Jerry's 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.
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. Ben Jerry's 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. Ben Jerry's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ben Jerry's 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. Ben Jerry's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ben Jerry's 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 Ben Jerry's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Ben Jerry's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ben Jerry's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ben Jerry's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? case study. Ben Jerry's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ben Jerry's 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, Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ben Jerry's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Ben Jerry's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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.
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. Ben Jerry's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Ben Jerry's 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ben Jerry's 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.
Threats Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ben Jerry's 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.
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 Ben Jerry's in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ben Jerry's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead?, Ben Jerry's 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Ben Jerry's
– 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 Ben Jerry's.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Ben Jerry's will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ben Jerry's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ben Jerry's 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ben Jerry's 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Ben Jerry's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ben Jerry's 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ben Jerry's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ben Jerry's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. (B): Scooped Up! What Lies Ahead? 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 Ben Jerry's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
