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Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development


Zingerman's co-founders Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw have a non-traditional approach to growth, allowing employees that receive extensive training through the organization to fulfill their wildest aspirations. Charting a partnership path to ownership, the pair allows employees to forge the businesses of their dreams while benefiting the greater Zingerman's Community of Businesses. The strategy has resulted in the creation of eight successful businesses, with several more in the pipeline and annual sales of approximately $50 million. Students assess this non-conventional approach and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy.

Authors :: Wayne Baker

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Human resource management, Organizational culture, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development" written by Wayne Baker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Zingerman's Businesses facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zingerman's Businesses, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zingerman's Businesses 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zingerman's Businesses
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 Zingerman's Businesses




Strengths Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Zingerman's Businesses in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development Harvard Business Review case study are -

Organizational Resilience of Zingerman's Businesses

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Zingerman's Businesses does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Innovation driven organization

– Zingerman's Businesses is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Zingerman's Businesses is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Zingerman's Businesses is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Zingerman's Businesses in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Learning organization

- Zingerman's Businesses 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 Zingerman's Businesses is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

– Zingerman's Businesses 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 Zingerman's Businesses in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Zingerman's Businesses digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Zingerman's Businesses to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Zingerman's Businesses to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Training and development

– Zingerman's Businesses has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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.






Weaknesses Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Zingerman's Businesses is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Zingerman's Businesses 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development, 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development HBR case study mentions - Zingerman's Businesses takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zingerman's Businesses is planning to shift buying processes online.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Wayne Baker suggests that, Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Zingerman's Businesses 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 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 Zingerman's Businesses supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Zingerman's Businesses vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Zingerman's Businesses is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Zingerman's Businesses needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Zingerman's Businesses 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Businesses 's lucrative customers.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Zingerman's Businesses has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.




Opportunities Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development | 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Zingerman's Businesses 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, Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Zingerman's Businesses has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Zingerman's Businesses to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development case study. Zingerman's Businesses can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Buying journey improvements

– Zingerman's Businesses can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Zingerman's Businesses is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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.

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 Zingerman's Businesses in the consumer business. Now Zingerman's Businesses can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Zingerman's Businesses can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zingerman's Businesses operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Zingerman's Businesses can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Loyalty marketing

– Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Zingerman's Businesses 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.

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 Zingerman's Businesses 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.




Threats Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development are -

Environmental challenges

– Zingerman's Businesses 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. Zingerman's Businesses can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

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 Zingerman's Businesses in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Zingerman's Businesses has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Zingerman's Businesses 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development .

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. Zingerman's Businesses 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.

Increasing wage structure of Zingerman's Businesses

– 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 Zingerman's Businesses.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Zingerman's Businesses is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Zingerman's Businesses business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Zingerman's Businesses needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development, Zingerman's Businesses 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 .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Zingerman's Businesses with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Zingerman's Businesses 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.

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 Zingerman's Businesses.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Community of Businesses: New Business Development 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 Zingerman's Businesses needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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