Swot Analysis of "Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki" written by Dante Roscini, Daniela Beyersdorfer, Jerome Lenhardt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Greek Agricole facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economic development, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Financial management, Government, International business, Marketing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Greek Agricole, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Greek Agricole
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Greek Agricole
Strengths Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Greek Agricole in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Greek Agricole has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Greek Agricole in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Greek Agricole 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Greek Agricole has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Greek Agricole 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.
Analytics focus
– Greek Agricole 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 Dante Roscini, Daniela Beyersdorfer, Jerome Lenhardt 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Greek Agricole 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 Greek Agricole in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Greek Agricole 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki - 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 Greek Agricole in the sector have low bargaining power. Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Greek Agricole to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Greek Agricole 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 Greek Agricole is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki, is just above the industry average. Greek Agricole 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Greek Agricole 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Greek Agricole, firm in the HBR case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Greek Agricole 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Greek Agricole products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Greek Agricole needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Greek Agricole is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 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 Greek Agricole supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Greek Agricole vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Greek Agricole has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki, in the dynamic environment Greek Agricole has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Greek Agricole has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Greek Agricole has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki | 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Greek Agricole 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 Greek Agricole to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Greek Agricole in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Greek Agricole has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Greek Agricole to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki case study. Greek Agricole can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Greek Agricole 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Greek Agricole to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Greek Agricole 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, Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Greek Agricole 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Greek Agricole 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Greek Agricole can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Greek Agricole can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Greek Agricole 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
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 Greek Agricole 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Greek Agricole can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Threats Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki, Greek Agricole may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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 Greek Agricole.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Greek Agricole 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.
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 Greek Agricole business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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
– Greek Agricole 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.
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. Greek Agricole 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Greek Agricole is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Greek Agricole with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Greek Agricole 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki .
Environmental challenges
– Greek Agricole 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. Greek Agricole can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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. Greek Agricole needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Greek Agricole in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Persephone's Pomegranate? Credit Agricole and Emporiki 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 Greek Agricole needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
