The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time
This case describes a small nonprofit organization called The Backyard Harvest (BYH). The focus of BYH was to collect excess produce from individuals and small farmers and make the produce available to local food banks. Amy Grey had started BYH as a program of a local environmental nonprofit but had recently created a separate and independent BYH organization. Because of recent national press on the organization, Amy had received several requests for help from a handful of people around the country interested in setting up their own version of BYH. Amy's dilemma was how to continue to serve the needs of her local community and help other people around the country set up equivalent organizations. Amy wondered if she should take BYH national, and if so, when and how to do it.
Authors :: John J. Lawrence, Michele O'Neill, Heidi Connole
Swot Analysis of "The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time" written by John J. Lawrence, Michele O'Neill, Heidi Connole includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Byh Amy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Financial management, Leadership, Risk management, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Byh Amy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Byh Amy 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Byh Amy
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 Byh Amy
Strengths The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Byh Amy in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Byh Amy to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Byh Amy to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Byh Amy is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Byh Amy 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Byh Amy has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Byh Amy 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.
Training and development
– Byh Amy has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Byh Amy in the sector have low bargaining power. The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Byh Amy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Byh Amy is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Byh Amy 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 Byh Amy in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Byh Amy 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Byh Amy has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Byh Amy to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Byh Amy 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 John J. Lawrence, Michele O'Neill, Heidi Connole 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.
Learning organization
- Byh Amy 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 Byh Amy is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Byh Amy 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, Byh Amy 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John J. Lawrence, Michele O'Neill, Heidi Connole suggests that, Byh Amy 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Byh Amy 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Byh Amy 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Byh Amy 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. Byh Amy 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time HBR case study mentions - Byh Amy 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Byh Amy is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Byh Amy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Byh Amy is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Byh Amy needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Byh Amy to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time, 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.
Opportunities The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time | 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Byh Amy has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Byh Amy to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time case study. Byh Amy can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Byh Amy 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 Byh Amy 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Byh Amy to increase its market reach. Byh Amy 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Byh Amy 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 Byh Amy to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Byh Amy 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Byh Amy can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Byh Amy operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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 Byh Amy in the consumer business. Now Byh Amy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Byh Amy 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. Byh Amy 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.
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 Byh Amy 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Byh Amy 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, The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Byh Amy can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Byh Amy 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.
Threats The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Byh Amy 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Byh Amy 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 The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time, Byh Amy 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 .
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 Byh Amy in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Byh Amy 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. Byh Amy 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
– Byh Amy 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. Byh Amy can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Byh Amy 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Byh Amy is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Byh Amy
– 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 Byh Amy.
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 Byh Amy.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Byh Amy with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Backyard Harvest: Outgrowing Hunger One Community at a Time 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 Byh Amy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
