This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch
The Anheuser-Busch InBev case represents a major cross-border M&A transaction. Because the material covers a large, well-known transaction involving food and beverage companies, students can focus on both the strategic rationale behind the transaction as well as understand the various valuation issues associated with any M&A deal-including some specific to cross-border M&A, such as currency conversion of foreign sales. The material includes both student and instructor spreadsheets.
Authors :: Yiorgos Allayannis, Gerry Yemen, Mary English, Paul Voorhees
Swot Analysis of "This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch" written by Yiorgos Allayannis, Gerry Yemen, Mary English, Paul Voorhees includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Busch Anheuser facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Currency, Financial analysis, Global strategy, Joint ventures, Marketing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Busch Anheuser, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Busch Anheuser 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Busch Anheuser
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Busch Anheuser
Strengths This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Busch Anheuser in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Busch Anheuser to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Busch Anheuser to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Busch Anheuser has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Busch Anheuser to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Busch Anheuser 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
– Busch Anheuser is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Busch Anheuser has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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
– Busch Anheuser is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Busch Anheuser has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Busch Anheuser has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Learning organization
- Busch Anheuser 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 Busch Anheuser is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Busch Anheuser in the sector have low bargaining power. This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Busch Anheuser to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Busch Anheuser is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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
– Busch Anheuser 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Busch Anheuser is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 Busch Anheuser has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Busch Anheuser 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch, it seems that the employees of Busch Anheuser don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Busch Anheuser has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Busch Anheuser even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Lack of clear differentiation of Busch Anheuser products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Busch Anheuser needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch HBR case study mentions - Busch Anheuser 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Yiorgos Allayannis, Gerry Yemen, Mary English, Paul Voorhees suggests that, Busch Anheuser 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 Busch Anheuser 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Busch Anheuser is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Busch Anheuser needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Busch Anheuser to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Busch Anheuser 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.
Opportunities This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch | 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Busch Anheuser can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Busch Anheuser operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Busch Anheuser can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Busch Anheuser can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Busch Anheuser can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Busch Anheuser 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, This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Busch Anheuser 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Busch Anheuser 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Busch Anheuser 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Busch Anheuser has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Busch Anheuser to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch case study. Busch Anheuser can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Busch Anheuser 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 Busch Anheuser to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Busch Anheuser 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. Busch Anheuser 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.
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 Busch Anheuser 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Busch Anheuser 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Threats This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Busch Anheuser 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 Busch Anheuser
– 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 Busch Anheuser.
Environmental challenges
– Busch Anheuser 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. Busch Anheuser can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Busch Anheuser business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Busch Anheuser has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Busch Anheuser needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Busch Anheuser.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Busch Anheuser in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Busch Anheuser in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Busch Anheuser needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch, Busch Anheuser may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Busch Anheuser can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Busch Anheuser 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 Finance & Accounting 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. Busch Anheuser 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 This Bud's for Who? The Battle for Anheuser-Busch 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 Busch Anheuser needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
