Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry
On January 4, 2016, the co-founders of Forked River Brewing Company (Forked River), a small brewery in London, Ontario, revisited the company's original business plan from 2012. Over the course of only four years, the founders went from home brewing enthusiasts to owners of a striving, award-winning craft brewery. Forked River beers were now offered in pubs, restaurants, and retail stores across the province of Ontario. In the past year alone, Forked River had expanded its production capacity by 50 per cent, hired an additional full-time brewmaster, and added a retail outlet to the brewing facility. However, business had recently become more complicated due to changes to Ontario retail liquor laws, increasing non-brewing administrative work, and looming decisions about the product portfolio and distribution strategy. Now, the three founders wondered whether Forked River was still on the right track or if a new strategic plan was needed to ensure its long-term success in the fast-changing craft beer industry.
Authors :: Max Stallkamp, Larry Plummer, Andreas Schotter
Swot Analysis of "Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry" written by Max Stallkamp, Larry Plummer, Andreas Schotter includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Forked River facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Forked River, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Forked River 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Forked River
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 Forked River
Strengths Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Forked River in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Forked River 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 Forked River in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Forked River has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Forked River has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Forked River 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.
Analytics focus
– Forked River 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 Max Stallkamp, Larry Plummer, Andreas Schotter 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.
High brand equity
– Forked River has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Forked River to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Forked River to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Forked River to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Forked River in the sector have low bargaining power. Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Forked River to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Forked River 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.
Organizational Resilience of Forked River
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Forked River does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Forked River digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Forked River 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Forked River in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Forked River is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry, is just above the industry average. Forked River 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 Forked River, firm in the HBR case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Forked River 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. Forked River 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Forked River 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Forked River 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 - Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Forked River supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Forked River vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry HBR case study mentions - Forked River 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Forked River 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Forked River is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Forked River needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Forked River to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry | 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Forked River 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Forked River to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Forked River 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. Forked River 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Forked River 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Forked River can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Forked River can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Forked River 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Forked River 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 Forked River to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Forked River to increase its market reach. Forked River 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.
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 Forked River in the consumer business. Now Forked River can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Forked River 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Forked River can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Forked River operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Forked River 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, Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry, 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 Forked River 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.
Threats Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry are -
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 Forked River 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.
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. Forked River 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Forked River 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.
Increasing wage structure of Forked River
– 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 Forked River.
Environmental challenges
– Forked River 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. Forked River can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry, Forked River may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Regulatory challenges
– Forked River 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Forked River 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry .
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 Forked River.
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.
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. Forked River can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Forked River 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River Brewing Co.: Craft Beer Entrepreneurship in an Evolving Industry 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 Forked River needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
