Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A)
Fishery Products International Ltd. is one of the largest seafood companies in North America. In January 2000, Vic Young marked his 15th anniversary as the only CEO of the company. Under his leadership, the company overcame the collapse of the North Atlantic fishery to become an international seafood company and an important contributor to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy. However, its share price has languished, and the company was recently the target of a hostile takeover bid. The bid was unsuccessful, due partly to government regulation on the company's stock ownership, but Young realizes another attempt is possible and wonders how to maintain shareholder confidence in its current board and management team.
Authors :: John Melnyk, Tami L. Hynes, W. Glenn Rowe
Swot Analysis of "Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A)" written by John Melnyk, Tami L. Hynes, W. Glenn Rowe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fishery Vic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, International business, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fishery Vic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fishery Vic 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fishery Vic
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 Fishery Vic
Strengths Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fishery Vic in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fishery Vic 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fishery Vic is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fishery Vic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fishery Vic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Fishery Vic 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 Fishery Vic is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Fishery Vic is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fishery Vic is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Fishery Vic
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fishery Vic does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fishery Vic 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 Fishery Vic in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fishery Vic 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fishery Vic in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fishery Vic 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Fishery Vic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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.
Weaknesses Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fishery Vic has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fishery Vic is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Fishery Vic needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fishery Vic to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Fishery Vic 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fishery Vic, firm in the HBR case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fishery Vic products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fishery Vic needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A), is just above the industry average. Fishery Vic 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) HBR case study mentions - Fishery Vic 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fishery Vic 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A), in the dynamic environment Fishery Vic has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fishery Vic has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fishery Vic is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) | 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Fishery Vic 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fishery Vic 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 Fishery Vic 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fishery Vic 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 Fishery Vic to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fishery Vic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fishery Vic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) case study. Fishery Vic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fishery Vic can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fishery Vic to increase its market reach. Fishery Vic 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.
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 Fishery Vic 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.
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. Fishery Vic can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fishery Vic 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Fishery Vic can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fishery Vic 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, Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fishery Vic 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.
Threats Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fishery Vic high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fishery Vic 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.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fishery Vic 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.
Increasing wage structure of Fishery Vic
– 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 Fishery Vic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fishery Vic is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fishery Vic has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fishery Vic needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Fishery Vic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Fishery Vic in the Leadership & Managing People 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. Fishery Vic 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A), Fishery Vic 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Fishery Vic 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. Fishery Vic can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Vic Young and Fishery Products International (A) 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 Fishery Vic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.