Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B)
The A case examines how CARE, a non-profit international development organization, begins to pursue a market-based approach to meeting its poverty-reduction mission. Specifically, a CARE project manager explores how previous work with low-income livestock herders in drought-prone eastern Kenya might offer an opportunity to work with value chain actors to improve access to markets and increase farmer incomes. With the Kenyan livestock project as the pilot for this new approach, Case A's main decision point concerns a strategic choice on what role CARE should play in the value chain to support low-income pastoralists. Options include 1) becoming directly involved in value chain transactions, buying and selling livestock and providing inputs to farmers or 2) acting as a value chain facilitator to provide the information and incentives to existing actors to make the value chain more efficient and inclusive for low-income producers. This strategic decision is part of a larger proposal that students are tasked to create for CARE's market-based livestock project. Case B describes the decisions CARE actually made in structuring the project and their choice to become directly involved in the value chain, buying cattle from farmers, negotiating a deal with a large farm to fatten the cattle and transporting the cattle to market. Case B is set three years into the project and begins to describe some of the serious challenges that their strategy is facing. Case B's decision point concerns developing options for how the project can be turned around, including that of CARE playing an indirect role as value chain facilitator and catalyst.
Swot Analysis of "Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B)" written by Kevin McKague includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Livestock Chain facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Market research, Strategy, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Livestock Chain, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Livestock Chain 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Livestock Chain
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 Livestock Chain
Strengths Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Livestock Chain in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Livestock Chain has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Livestock Chain 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Livestock Chain is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Livestock Chain
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Livestock Chain does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Livestock Chain 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 Livestock Chain is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Livestock Chain in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Livestock Chain 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Livestock Chain 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 Kevin McKague 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Livestock Chain to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Livestock Chain to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Livestock Chain is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Livestock Chain 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Livestock Chain in the sector have low bargaining power. Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Livestock Chain to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Livestock Chain 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Livestock Chain 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Livestock Chain 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Livestock Chain is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Livestock Chain needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Livestock Chain to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Livestock Chain 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Livestock Chain is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Livestock Chain is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B), 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Livestock Chain 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Livestock Chain 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 - Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Livestock Chain products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Livestock Chain needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) | 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Livestock Chain 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, Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Livestock Chain has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Livestock Chain to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) case study. Livestock Chain can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Livestock Chain can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Livestock Chain operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Livestock Chain 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Livestock Chain can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Livestock Chain is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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
– Livestock Chain 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Livestock Chain 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Livestock Chain 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Livestock Chain to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Livestock Chain can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Livestock Chain 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Livestock Chain in the consumer business. Now Livestock Chain can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Livestock Chain can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) are -
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.
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 Livestock Chain.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Livestock Chain 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. Livestock Chain can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Livestock Chain 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.
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 Livestock Chain in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Livestock Chain 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Livestock Chain is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Livestock Chain has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Livestock Chain 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.
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 Livestock Chain business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Livestock Chain 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Livestock Chain 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. Livestock Chain can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B) 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 Livestock Chain needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B)
