Case Study Description of Bluewater Foods Corporation
The chief financial officer of Ontario-based Bluewater Foods Corporation has just returned from a meeting with management of County Chickens Ltd., Bluewater's largest supplier of chicken breast meat and current acquisition target. The chief financial officer must put together a recommendation as to how a purchase of County might be structured and how it would affect Bluewater's financial statement.
Swot Analysis of "Bluewater Foods Corporation" written by Mary Heisz, Janet Carter includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bluewater's Bluewater facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bluewater Foods Corporation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bluewater Foods Corporation casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bluewater Foods Corporation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bluewater Foods Corporation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bluewater's Bluewater, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bluewater Foods Corporation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bluewater's Bluewater
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 Bluewater's Bluewater
Strengths Bluewater Foods Corporation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bluewater's Bluewater in Bluewater Foods Corporation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Bluewater's Bluewater
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bluewater's Bluewater does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Bluewater's Bluewater has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bluewater Foods Corporation 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
– Bluewater's Bluewater is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bluewater Foods Corporation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Mary Heisz, Janet Carter 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Bluewater Foods Corporation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bluewater's Bluewater to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bluewater's Bluewater to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Bluewater's Bluewater is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bluewater Foods Corporation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bluewater's Bluewater in the sector have low bargaining power. Bluewater Foods Corporation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bluewater's Bluewater to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater's Bluewater in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater's Bluewater is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bluewater Foods Corporation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bluewater's Bluewater digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bluewater Foods Corporation are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bluewater's Bluewater is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Bluewater Foods Corporation 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
Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bluewater's Bluewater 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 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 Bluewater's Bluewater supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Bluewater Foods Corporation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bluewater's Bluewater vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater's Bluewater has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bluewater's Bluewater products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bluewater's Bluewater is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bluewater's Bluewater 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 - Bluewater Foods Corporation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bluewater Foods Corporation, it seems that the employees of Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Opportunities Bluewater Foods Corporation | 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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. Bluewater's Bluewater can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
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 Bluewater's Bluewater in the consumer business. Now Bluewater's Bluewater can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bluewater's Bluewater has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bluewater's Bluewater to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bluewater Foods Corporation case study. Bluewater's Bluewater can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bluewater's Bluewater can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bluewater Foods Corporation 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater's Bluewater to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bluewater's Bluewater 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, Bluewater Foods Corporation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Bluewater's Bluewater 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. Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bluewater's Bluewater to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bluewater's Bluewater can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Threats Bluewater Foods Corporation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bluewater Foods Corporation are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bluewater's Bluewater 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
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bluewater's Bluewater 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 Bluewater's Bluewater in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Bluewater's Bluewater can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bluewater's Bluewater has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Increasing wage structure of Bluewater's Bluewater
– 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 Bluewater's Bluewater.
Regulatory challenges
– Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bluewater's Bluewater is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Bluewater's Bluewater 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bluewater Foods Corporation, Bluewater's Bluewater 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 .
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 Bluewater's Bluewater business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater Foods Corporation 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 Bluewater's Bluewater needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.