Distillers Delight in the U.K. SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Distillers Delight in the U.K.
Tony Hamilton, brand manager for Distillers Delight in the United Kingdom, is preparing for his upcoming meeting with his boss, Charlotte Handy, managing director for the United Kingdom for Global Distillers, Inc., one of the leading companies in the alcoholic beverages industry. The purpose of the meeting is to review how well his brand performed during the company's 2003 fiscal year. To say the least, it had been a very difficult year. No one had predicted any increase in the country's excise tax, let alone the 60% increase that took effect shortly after the company's 2003 fiscal year began. From that point on, almost nothing had gone according to plan. Thus, Tony is looking for a way to reconcile actual results with planned results in a way that is accurate, informative and understandable. This case is based on an actual situation, and it was written with the cooperation of one of the leading global companies in the spirits industry. The company name, the product name, individuals' names and the numerical data have all been disguised, yet the issues presented are real.
Swot Analysis of "Distillers Delight in the U.K." written by E. Richard Brownlee II includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Distillers Delight facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Distillers Delight in the U.K. case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Budgeting, Corporate governance, Costs, Financial analysis, Manufacturing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Distillers Delight in the U.K. casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Distillers Delight in the U.K.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Distillers Delight in the U.K. case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Distillers Delight, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Distillers Delight in the U.K. case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Distillers Delight
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 Distillers Delight
Strengths Distillers Delight in the U.K. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Distillers Delight in Distillers Delight in the U.K. Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Distillers Delight
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Distillers Delight does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Distillers Delight has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Distillers Delight 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Distillers Delight in the sector have low bargaining power. Distillers Delight in the U.K. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Distillers Delight to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Distillers Delight is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Distillers Delight in the U.K. Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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
– Distillers Delight is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Distillers Delight in the U.K. are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Distillers Delight in the U.K. Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Distillers Delight 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 E. Richard Brownlee II 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Distillers Delight is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Distillers Delight is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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.
Weaknesses Distillers Delight in the U.K. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Distillers Delight in the U.K. are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Distillers Delight 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Distillers Delight is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Distillers Delight in the U.K. can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Distillers Delight 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Distillers Delight 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Distillers Delight, firm in the HBR case study Distillers Delight in the U.K. needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Distillers Delight products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Distillers Delight needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Distillers Delight 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. Distillers Delight 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Distillers Delight 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Distillers Delight is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Distillers Delight needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Distillers Delight to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Distillers Delight is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Distillers Delight in the U.K. | 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. are -
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. Distillers Delight can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Distillers Delight to increase its market reach. Distillers Delight 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Distillers Delight can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Distillers Delight 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Distillers Delight 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Distillers Delight can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Distillers Delight 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Distillers Delight 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Distillers Delight 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, Distillers Delight in the U.K., to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Distillers Delight in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Distillers Delight in the consumer business. Now Distillers Delight can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Distillers Delight can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Distillers Delight operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Threats Distillers Delight in the U.K. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Distillers Delight in the U.K. are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Distillers Delight 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Distillers Delight 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. .
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. Distillers Delight needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Distillers Delight has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Distillers Delight 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Distillers Delight in the U.K., Distillers Delight 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Distillers Delight is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Distillers Delight
– 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 Distillers Delight.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Distillers Delight 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Distillers Delight 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Distillers Delight 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.
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 Distillers Delight business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight in the U.K. 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 Distillers Delight needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.