Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me?
Andrea Ruma has worked for three years at Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket (Ruma's), a 112- year- old family business in Massachusetts. Andrea is trying to decide whether she will stay in the business or leave to go back to teaching. The problem for Andrea is that her father, Jim Ruma, will not share any information on the company strategy, finances, estate planning, or succession planning, nor provide her with any feedback on whether she is doing a good job. Although Jim is 72 years old, he is an active and opportunistic businessman. In the last twenty years, he has gotten out of the wholesale fruit business and has entered five new business areas, all without any planning. Although the company is profitable and provides good income to four family members, Andrea has doubts as to whether she should commit to the company with the idea of possibly taking over the business as the only viable fourth generation family member.
Authors :: John H Friar, Edmund Clark, Kimberly A Eddleston
Swot Analysis of "Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me?" written by John H Friar, Edmund Clark, Kimberly A Eddleston includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ruma's Andrea facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ruma's Andrea, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ruma's Andrea
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 Ruma's Andrea
Strengths Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ruma's Andrea in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ruma's Andrea is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Andrea digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ruma's Andrea 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ruma's Andrea is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Andrea in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ruma's Andrea in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Ruma's Andrea is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Andrea is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Ruma's Andrea has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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.
Organizational Resilience of Ruma's Andrea
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ruma's Andrea does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ruma's Andrea has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ruma's Andrea 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.
Weaknesses Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? are -
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 Ruma's Andrea supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ruma's Andrea vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ruma's Andrea 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 - Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Andrea has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ruma's Andrea is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Ruma's Andrea needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ruma's Andrea to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ruma's Andrea 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ruma's Andrea products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ruma's Andrea needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Ruma's Andrea 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me?, is just above the industry average. Ruma's Andrea needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ruma's Andrea 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John H Friar, Edmund Clark, Kimberly A Eddleston suggests that, Ruma's Andrea 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ruma's Andrea is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? | 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? are -
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. Ruma's Andrea 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. Ruma's Andrea 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ruma's Andrea can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ruma's Andrea is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ruma's Andrea has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ruma's Andrea to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? case study. Ruma's Andrea can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Ruma's Andrea in the consumer business. Now Ruma's Andrea can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Andrea to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Ruma's Andrea can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ruma's Andrea 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ruma's Andrea 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ruma's Andrea 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ruma's Andrea to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ruma's Andrea 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ruma's Andrea 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.
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 Ruma's Andrea 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.
Threats Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ruma's Andrea with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Ruma's Andrea 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. Ruma's Andrea can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Increasing wage structure of Ruma's Andrea
– 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 Ruma's Andrea.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ruma's Andrea has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ruma's Andrea 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.
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. Ruma's Andrea needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Ruma's Andrea 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ruma's Andrea 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.
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 Ruma's Andrea in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ruma's Andrea is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Ruma's Andrea 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ruma's Andrea 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket World: Will Dad Ever Talk to Me? 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 Ruma's Andrea needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.