Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming

"Duxton Asset Management, a specialist agro-business investor, is evaluating an investment in rice farming in Tanzania, Africa. Duxton has a business strategy of investing in operating farmland assets, many of which are in developing or even frontier markets. The case discusses the complexities of investing in an atypical multidimensional asset. "

Authors :: Anindita Sharma, Claudia Zeisberger, Michael Prahl

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming" written by Anindita Sharma, Claudia Zeisberger, Michael Prahl includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Duxton Rice facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Duxton Rice, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Duxton Rice 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Duxton Rice
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 Duxton Rice

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Strengths Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Duxton Rice in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming Harvard Business Review case study are -

Training and development

– Duxton Rice has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Duxton Rice in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Duxton Rice is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Analytics focus

– Duxton Rice 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 Anindita Sharma, Claudia Zeisberger, Michael Prahl 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Duxton Rice is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Duxton Rice 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Duxton Rice has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Duxton Rice 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Duxton Rice is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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.

Organizational Resilience of Duxton Rice

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

Highly skilled collaborators

– Duxton Rice 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Strong track record of project management

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

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Weaknesses Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming are -

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Duxton Rice needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming, in the dynamic environment Duxton Rice has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Duxton Rice has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Duxton Rice 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.

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 Duxton Rice supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Duxton Rice vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Duxton Rice 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming, is just above the industry average. Duxton Rice 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Duxton Rice has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Duxton Rice even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Duxton Rice is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Need for greater diversity

– Duxton Rice 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Duxton Rice products

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

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming, 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.

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Opportunities Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming | 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming are -

Developing new processes and practices

– Duxton Rice 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.

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

Manufacturing automation

– Duxton Rice 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Duxton Rice 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Duxton Rice to increase its market reach. Duxton Rice 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Duxton Rice 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Duxton Rice 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.

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 Duxton Rice 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Duxton Rice 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Duxton Rice can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Duxton Rice operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Duxton Rice is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Duxton Rice 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Duxton Rice 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.

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Threats Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming are -

Increasing wage structure of Duxton Rice

– 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 Duxton Rice.

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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Duxton Rice has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Duxton Rice 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. Duxton Rice 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.

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. Duxton Rice 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

– Duxton Rice 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Duxton Rice 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.

Environmental challenges

– Duxton Rice 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. Duxton Rice can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

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 Duxton Rice in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Regulatory challenges

– Duxton Rice 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.

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 Duxton Rice business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming, Duxton Rice 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 .

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Rice from Africa for Africa: Duxton Asset Management and its Investment in Tanzanian Rice Farming 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 Duxton Rice needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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