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Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product


Doug Mason wished to create a new product that would cater to the interests of a new age generation, and he chose the development of a beverage that would have a healthy lifestyle image. His entrepreneurial start-up led to very rapid expansion and ultimately to sales in other countries. Clearly Canadian relies upon other companies to provide equipment for transportation and distribution, enabling it to operate with relatively few employees and a small base of physical capital. The case poses an interesting question, "Is the company a small service sector enterprise or a large manufacturing business?"

Authors :: David W. Conklin

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product" written by David W. Conklin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Beverage Age facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Strategic planning and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beverage Age, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beverage Age 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beverage Age
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 Beverage Age




Strengths Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Beverage Age in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product Harvard Business Review case study are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry

– Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Beverage Age to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Beverage Age to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Beverage Age is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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

– Beverage Age has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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.

Analytics focus

– Beverage Age 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 David W. Conklin 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Beverage Age in the sector have low bargaining power. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beverage Age to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Organizational Resilience of Beverage Age

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Beverage Age does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Innovation driven organization

– Beverage Age is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Beverage Age 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

– Beverage Age has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Beverage Age to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Beverage Age in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Beverage Age 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Strong track record of project management

– Beverage Age is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.






Weaknesses Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product are -

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Beverage Age has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product HBR case study mentions - Beverage Age takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

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 Beverage Age supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Beverage Age vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Beverage Age 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product, is just above the industry average. Beverage Age 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Beverage Age products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Beverage Age needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Beverage Age is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Beverage Age needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Beverage Age to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Beverage Age 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 - Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Beverage Age 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, Beverage Age is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Beverage Age 's lucrative customers.




Opportunities Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product | 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Beverage Age 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Beverage Age can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Beverage Age 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Beverage Age to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Beverage Age 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.

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. Beverage Age can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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. Beverage Age can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Beverage Age 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.

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 Beverage Age 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Beverage Age 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beverage Age is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beverage Age 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, Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Manufacturing automation

– Beverage Age 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Beverage Age can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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.




Threats Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product are -

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Beverage Age 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.

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 Beverage Age in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Beverage Age 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product, Beverage Age 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 .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Beverage Age with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Beverage Age.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Beverage Age is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Beverage Age 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Beverage Age 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beverage Age 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product .

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. Beverage Age 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.

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 Beverage Age business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.: Creating a New New Age Product 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 Beverage Age needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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