Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals
This case is available in only hard copy format (HBP does not have digital distribution rights to the content). As a result, a digital Educator Copy of the case is not available through this web site.Sam Huttenbauer is trying to get two companies, in high-pressure food preservation and in nutraceuticals, off the ground. This case covers strategic, marketing, and financing challenges. It also looks at innovative technologies in the food industry and the role of the entrepreneur in commercializing them.
Authors :: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Stacey Bell
Swot Analysis of "Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Stacey Bell includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals casestudy better are - – technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals
Strengths Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Stacey Bell 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals in the sector have low bargaining power. Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
High brand equity
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals, it seems that the employees of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals, firm in the HBR case study Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 - Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals HBR case study mentions - Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals | 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals case study. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals in the consumer business. Now Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals to increase its market reach. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Threats Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals are -
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals .
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. Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals
– 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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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.
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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals, Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Sam Huttenbauer: Entrepreneurship in Food Preservation and Nutraceuticals 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 Huttenbauer Nutraceuticals needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
