The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida
In February 2007, Jonah Nobleza started Marina Gana Vida ("MGV") in the Davao coastal area in the Philippines, which historically had been the home of many subsistence fishermen living in poverty. MGV sold hatchery-bred fry fish seed stocks, fresh fish and packaged fish products produced in its own processing plant. The main social objective of MGV was to help the poor living in the area through job or business opportunities so that some day they could lift their households out of poverty. Since 2009, MGV had been gradually meeting its social, environmental and economic goals. It provided direct and indirect employment to many poor households. Nobleza faced conflicting goals as he tried to scale up MGV's production. Should he replace the women workers with machines that could produce more jars of processed fish products per day? Without a sizable business, he would have trouble proving his successful business model to those who would be willing to provide the much-needed funds to MGV. What could he do to balance his philanthropic and business goals in a social enterprise such as MGV?
Swot Analysis of "The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida" written by Ali Farhoomand, Shiu Kau Wong includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mgv Fish facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mgv Fish, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mgv Fish 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mgv Fish
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 Mgv Fish
Strengths The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mgv Fish in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mgv Fish in the sector have low bargaining power. The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mgv Fish to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mgv Fish is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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.
Learning organization
- Mgv Fish 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 Mgv Fish is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Mgv Fish has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mgv Fish to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mgv Fish to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mgv Fish to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mgv Fish is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mgv Fish 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mgv Fish 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mgv Fish 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Mgv Fish is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 Mgv Fish 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.
Weaknesses The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mgv Fish is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Mgv Fish needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mgv Fish to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mgv Fish 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida, is just above the industry average. Mgv Fish 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ali Farhoomand, Shiu Kau Wong suggests that, Mgv Fish 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mgv Fish 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mgv Fish, firm in the HBR case study The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mgv Fish 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mgv Fish 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 Mgv Fish 's lucrative 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 Mgv Fish supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mgv Fish vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida | 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mgv Fish 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mgv Fish 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.
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. Mgv Fish 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. Mgv Fish 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mgv Fish has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mgv Fish to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida case study. Mgv Fish can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Mgv Fish can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mgv Fish 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.
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 Mgv Fish in the consumer business. Now Mgv Fish 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. Mgv Fish can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Mgv Fish 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, Mgv Fish 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.
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. Mgv Fish can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mgv Fish 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mgv Fish 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 Mgv Fish to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mgv Fish 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.
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 Mgv Fish.
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. Mgv Fish can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mgv Fish 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mgv Fish is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Mgv Fish in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mgv Fish 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.
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.
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. Mgv Fish 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Mgv Fish 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mgv Fish 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.
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 Mgv Fish business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines: Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida 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 Mgv Fish needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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