Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm
Wawa, a $4 billion privately held firm, is arguably the most successful convenience store operator in the United States. Explores how senior management decided to build an entirely new gasoline retailing business within the 100+-year-old firm's core business of high-quality prepared foods and beverages. Charges students with defining the business and organization strategy necessary to "mainstream" the newly proven gasoline retailing concept throughout the company.
Swot Analysis of "Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm" written by Robert C. Wolcott includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wawa Gasoline facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Strategy, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wawa Gasoline, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wawa Gasoline 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wawa Gasoline
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 Wawa Gasoline
Strengths Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wawa Gasoline in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wawa Gasoline 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wawa Gasoline in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Wawa Gasoline 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 Robert C. Wolcott 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Wawa Gasoline is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wawa Gasoline 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wawa Gasoline in the sector have low bargaining power. Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wawa Gasoline to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Wawa Gasoline 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 Wawa Gasoline is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wawa Gasoline is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wawa Gasoline digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wawa Gasoline 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.
Training and development
– Wawa Gasoline has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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
– Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Wawa Gasoline to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Wawa Gasoline to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wawa Gasoline is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wawa Gasoline 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 - Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wawa Gasoline is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Wawa Gasoline 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wawa Gasoline is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Wawa Gasoline needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wawa Gasoline to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wawa Gasoline is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa Gasoline has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm, 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.
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 Wawa Gasoline supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wawa Gasoline vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert C. Wolcott suggests that, Wawa Gasoline 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm HBR case study mentions - Wawa Gasoline 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm, in the dynamic environment Wawa Gasoline has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wawa Gasoline has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm | 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm are -
Buying journey improvements
– Wawa Gasoline can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wawa Gasoline to increase its market reach. Wawa Gasoline will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Wawa Gasoline is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Wawa Gasoline 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wawa Gasoline can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wawa Gasoline can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wawa Gasoline operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wawa Gasoline 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.
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. Wawa Gasoline 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. Wawa Gasoline 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wawa Gasoline 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 Wawa Gasoline to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wawa Gasoline 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.
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. Wawa Gasoline can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wawa Gasoline has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wawa Gasoline to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm case study. Wawa Gasoline 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, Wawa Gasoline 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, Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wawa Gasoline has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wawa Gasoline 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.
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. Wawa Gasoline 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wawa Gasoline in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Wawa Gasoline.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wawa Gasoline with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Wawa Gasoline
– 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 Wawa Gasoline.
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. Wawa Gasoline needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wawa Gasoline 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.
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. Wawa Gasoline can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wawa Gasoline 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
– Wawa Gasoline 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wawa Gasoline 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa: Building a New Business Within an Established Firm 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 Wawa Gasoline needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
