Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur
Based in Delhi, India, Sherry's Bakery (Sherry's) faced a host of challenges at the four-year point in its operations, with issues related to business expansion and management, cost management and fund procurement. The business had gradually grown from a hobby based on a love of baking into a home-based business that showed lots of potential for growth. The owner needed to devise a marketing and communication plan for her business since she wanted to turn Sherry's into a full-fledged bakery rather than simply operating from her kitchen. Subhalaxmi Mohapatra and Subhadip Roy are affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Udaipur.
Swot Analysis of "Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur" written by Subhalaxmi Mohapatra, Subhadip Roy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sherry's Bakery facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sherry's Bakery, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sherry's Bakery
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 Sherry's Bakery
Strengths Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sherry's Bakery in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sherry's Bakery 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.
Training and development
– Sherry's Bakery has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sherry's Bakery is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sherry's Bakery 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sherry's Bakery is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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.
High brand equity
– Sherry's Bakery has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sherry's Bakery to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sherry's Bakery in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sherry's Bakery in the sector have low bargaining power. Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sherry's Bakery to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Sherry's Bakery is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Subhalaxmi Mohapatra, Subhadip Roy can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sherry's Bakery digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sherry's Bakery 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.
Weaknesses Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur are -
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 Sherry's Bakery supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sherry's Bakery vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sherry's Bakery 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Sherry's Bakery 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sherry's Bakery 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sherry's Bakery products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sherry's Bakery needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sherry's Bakery is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sherry's Bakery 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur, in the dynamic environment Sherry's Bakery has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sherry's Bakery has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sherry's Bakery 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's Bakery 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sherry's Bakery is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur | 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sherry's Bakery to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sherry's Bakery is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sherry's Bakery has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sherry's Bakery to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur case study. Sherry's Bakery can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Sherry's Bakery in the consumer business. Now Sherry's Bakery can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sherry's Bakery 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sherry's Bakery 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sherry's Bakery can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's Bakery 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.
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. Sherry's Bakery can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Sherry's Bakery can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sherry's Bakery can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Sherry's Bakery can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sherry's Bakery 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.
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 Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur are -
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. Sherry's Bakery 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.
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 Sherry's Bakery in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sherry's Bakery with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sherry's Bakery is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sherry's Bakery 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sherry's Bakery 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.
Increasing wage structure of Sherry's Bakery
– 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 Sherry's Bakery.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sherry's Bakery 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur .
Regulatory challenges
– Sherry's Bakery 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.
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 Sherry's Bakery business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Sherry's Bakery can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Sherry's Bakery needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's: Growth Hurdles of a Hobbyist Turned Entrepreneur 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 Sherry's Bakery needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
