Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce
In July 2014, supermarket chain Wegmans received notification from supplier Wawona Packing Co. that its peaches arrived in Australia with a small trace of Listeria monocytogenes. While some countries such as Australia allowed low-levels of listeria to be present in certain produce, the U.S. had a zero-tolerance policy, and Wawona issued a voluntary recall of its peaches in the U.S. CEO Danny Wegman considered how Wegmans could become more proactive in food safety and what preventative action could be taken in the future. He considered what rules and regulations should be put into place domestically. What role should Wegmans and the food industry play in this approach?
Swot Analysis of "Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Christine Snively includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wegmans Listeria facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce casestudy better are - – technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wegmans Listeria, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wegmans Listeria
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 Wegmans Listeria
Strengths Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wegmans Listeria in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wegmans Listeria 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wegmans Listeria 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 lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans Listeria in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Wegmans Listeria has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wegmans Listeria to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wegmans Listeria is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Wegmans Listeria is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wegmans Listeria digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Wegmans Listeria
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wegmans Listeria does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wegmans Listeria in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wegmans Listeria 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wegmans Listeria is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, is just above the industry average. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wegmans Listeria, firm in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, 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.
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 Wegmans Listeria supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wegmans Listeria vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, it seems that the employees of Wegmans Listeria 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wegmans Listeria is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, in the dynamic environment Wegmans Listeria has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wegmans Listeria has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wegmans Listeria 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. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Opportunities Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
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 Wegmans Listeria in the consumer business. Now Wegmans Listeria can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans Listeria to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Wegmans Listeria can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
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. Wegmans Listeria 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. Wegmans Listeria can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wegmans Listeria 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wegmans Listeria to increase its market reach. Wegmans Listeria 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, Wegmans Listeria can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wegmans Listeria operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wegmans Listeria 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wegmans Listeria has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wegmans Listeria to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wegmans Listeria 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.
Threats Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wegmans Listeria demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
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. Wegmans Listeria will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Regulatory challenges
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
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 Wegmans Listeria in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wegmans Listeria is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Wegmans Listeria.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, Wegmans Listeria 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wegmans Listeria 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.
Increasing wage structure of Wegmans Listeria
– 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 Wegmans Listeria.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wegmans Listeria has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wegmans Listeria 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans Listeria needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.