Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis
Martin Fassler's dynamic entrepreneurial and innovative skills were evident when he saw an opportunity in the smoked marlin market and started his now-successful company, Fassler Gourmet (FG). After coping with the initial challenges that every new entrepreneur faces, he found success in supplying airlines flying out of Singapore, Bangkok and Seoul with original seafood dishes. Airline travel - and FG's revenues - were decimated by the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998, the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the global economic downturn in 2008. During these hard times, Fassler excelled in innovation and diversification and developed five distinct and growing markets for exotic seafood. Rather than fire employees during these crises, Fassler instead reduced their work hours and thus cultivated an extremely loyal workforce. FG now works with many wholesalers, exporters, re-sellers, hotels, airline caterers, restaurants, cafes and sandwich shops and has factory outlet and home-delivery customers. Martin Fassler, now in his fifties, has reached a critical moment in his business career. Should he continue to lead, innovate and diversify further or should he begin to reduce his involvement? Selling a share to a new partner, handing responsibilities to his younger managers or divesting himself of this successful company altogether are all options, but risk alienating his loyal workforce.
Swot Analysis of "Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis" written by Stephen Grainger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fassler Fg facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fassler Fg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fassler Fg
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 Fassler Fg
Strengths Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fassler Fg in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fassler Fg 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fassler Fg in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fassler Fg is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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
– Fassler Fg has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fassler Fg is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Fassler Fg has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fassler Fg to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fassler Fg to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fassler Fg to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Fassler Fg products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fassler Fg needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis, in the dynamic environment Fassler Fg has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fassler Fg is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Fg 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fassler Fg 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fassler Fg 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fassler Fg 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fassler Fg 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fassler Fg is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Fassler Fg needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fassler Fg to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fassler Fg 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.
Opportunities Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis | 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Fg in the consumer business. Now Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fassler Fg 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fassler Fg 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fassler Fg to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fassler Fg 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fassler Fg is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fassler Fg 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, Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Fassler Fg can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fassler Fg 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fassler Fg to increase its market reach. Fassler Fg 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.
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. Fassler Fg can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fassler Fg 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Fassler Fg needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Fassler Fg 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.
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. Fassler Fg 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.
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 Fassler Fg.
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. Fassler Fg 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
– Fassler Fg 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. Fassler Fg can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fassler Fg has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fassler Fg 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 Fassler Fg business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fassler Fg 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Gourmet Singapore: Innovation from a Crisis 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 Fassler Fg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.