Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering
In mid-2008, the senior vice-president of Global Supply Chain at Elizabeth Arden in New York City was troubled with the challenges that lay before him. He had been hired to make sweeping changes to the company's management of its supply chain, and he had already made a significant impact in forecasting, inventory control and service performance. His next move would require a radical consolidation of suppliers, make dramatic changes to inventory management, have a far-reaching impact on product development and require major lead time reductions. Given such a disruptive move, would current suppliers be able to meet expectations? Could the company's current employees keep up with the pace of change expected? How many would have to be let go, and what would this do the morale of the workforce? Were significant results to shareholders really achievable? How much money would be saved, where would the savings come from and when would they be realized? The senior vice-president was determined to execute the re-engineering in a manner that would best address all these concerns.
Swot Analysis of "Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering" written by David Wood, Norman Gao includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Arden Elizabeth facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization,
technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Arden Elizabeth, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Arden Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Arden Elizabeth
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 Arden Elizabeth
Strengths Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Arden Elizabeth in Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Arden Elizabeth is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Arden Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Arden Elizabeth 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 David Wood, Norman Gao 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Arden Elizabeth is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Arden Elizabeth has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Arden Elizabeth to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Arden Elizabeth
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Arden Elizabeth does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Arden Elizabeth 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Arden Elizabeth to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Arden Elizabeth to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Arden Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Arden Elizabeth 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
– Arden Elizabeth is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David Wood, Norman Gao suggests that, Arden Elizabeth 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Arden Elizabeth has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Arden Elizabeth products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Arden Elizabeth needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Arden Elizabeth is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Arden Elizabeth supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Arden Elizabeth vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Arden Elizabeth 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering, is just above the industry average. Arden Elizabeth 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 Arden Elizabeth, firm in the HBR case study Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Arden Elizabeth has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering, in the dynamic environment Arden Elizabeth has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Arden Elizabeth has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Arden Elizabeth 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.
Opportunities Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering | 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering are -
Buying journey improvements
– Arden Elizabeth can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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.
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 Arden Elizabeth in the consumer business. Now Arden Elizabeth can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Arden Elizabeth 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.
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. Arden Elizabeth 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. Arden Elizabeth 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Arden Elizabeth 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Arden Elizabeth 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Arden Elizabeth has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Arden Elizabeth to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering case study. Arden Elizabeth can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Arden Elizabeth to increase its market reach. Arden Elizabeth 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Arden Elizabeth 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Arden Elizabeth 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 Arden Elizabeth to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Arden Elizabeth 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.
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 Arden Elizabeth to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Arden Elizabeth can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Arden Elizabeth 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Arden Elizabeth 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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 Arden Elizabeth.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Arden Elizabeth 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Arden Elizabeth 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 Arden Elizabeth is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Arden Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering .
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. Arden Elizabeth needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Arden Elizabeth
– 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 Arden Elizabeth.
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 Arden Elizabeth in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Arden Elizabeth 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. Arden Elizabeth can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Arden Elizabeth can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Elizabeth Arden: Executing Global Supply Chain Re-engineering 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 Arden Elizabeth needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.