Swot Analysis of "A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited" written by Mary M. Crossan, Gerard Seijts, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Aziz's Nursery facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Aziz's Nursery, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Aziz's Nursery 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Aziz's Nursery
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Aziz's Nursery
Strengths A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Aziz's Nursery in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Aziz's Nursery has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Aziz's Nursery to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Aziz's Nursery is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Organizational Resilience of Aziz's Nursery
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Aziz's Nursery does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Aziz's Nursery in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Aziz's Nursery digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Aziz's Nursery 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Aziz's Nursery 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Aziz's Nursery is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Aziz's Nursery has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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
– Aziz's Nursery 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Aziz's Nursery is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Aziz's Nursery 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 Aziz's Nursery is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Aziz's Nursery 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Aziz's Nursery is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Aziz's Nursery needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Aziz's Nursery to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Aziz's Nursery 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Aziz's Nursery products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Aziz's Nursery needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Aziz's Nursery is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Aziz's Nursery, firm in the HBR case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 Aziz's Nursery 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited HBR case study mentions - Aziz's Nursery 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Aziz's Nursery 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. Aziz's Nursery 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Aziz's Nursery 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 - A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Aziz's Nursery is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited | 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Aziz's Nursery in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Aziz's Nursery is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Aziz's Nursery 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. Aziz's Nursery 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Aziz's Nursery 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.
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 Aziz's Nursery 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Aziz's Nursery to increase its market reach. Aziz's Nursery 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Aziz's Nursery can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Aziz's Nursery operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Aziz's Nursery 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Aziz's Nursery can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Aziz's Nursery can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Aziz's Nursery can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Aziz's Nursery can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Aziz's Nursery can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Threats A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Aziz's Nursery can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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
– Aziz's Nursery 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. Aziz's Nursery can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited, Aziz's Nursery may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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 Aziz's Nursery business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Aziz's Nursery in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Aziz's Nursery with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Aziz's Nursery 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Aziz's Nursery is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Aziz's Nursery 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Aziz's Nursery 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.
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.
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 Aziz's Nursery in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited 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 Aziz's Nursery 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 A Not So "Rosy" Situation: Bill Aziz's Challenge at White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited
