Case Study Description of Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers
By late 2015, the chief executive officer of Devonian Coast Wineries in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia had invested in the business and had broadened the distribution of the wines he produced. His chief concern was growing sales beyond Nova Scotia's provincial borders. Selling wines in other provinces was difficult because it required approaching the various provincial liquor control boards. He had three options: continue to engage with each provincial liquor board's buyers, lobby for greater retail access, or pursue the removal of provincial barriers to wine trade within the Atlantic provinces. If all interprovincial barriers were removed, he would need to compete with other provinces' larger wine producers, and they would likely gain market share at the expense of local wineries. What was the best strategy to expand Devonian Coast Wineries' distribution beyond Nova Scotia?
Swot Analysis of "Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers" written by W. Glenn Rowe, Paul Boothe, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wineries Provincial facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Regulation, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wineries Provincial, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wineries Provincial
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 Wineries Provincial
Strengths Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wineries Provincial in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wineries Provincial is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wineries Provincial 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
– Wineries Provincial is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Wineries Provincial
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wineries Provincial does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wineries Provincial in the sector have low bargaining power. Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wineries Provincial to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Wineries Provincial has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wineries Provincial 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.
Training and development
– Wineries Provincial has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wineries Provincial has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Wineries Provincial to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Wineries Provincial to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wineries Provincial 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wineries Provincial 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wineries Provincial is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Wineries Provincial needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Wineries Provincial 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Wineries Provincial has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wineries Provincial 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 - Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers, is just above the industry average. Wineries Provincial 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers, in the dynamic environment Wineries Provincial has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wineries Provincial has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers HBR case study mentions - Wineries Provincial 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.
Opportunities Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers | 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers are -
Buying journey improvements
– Wineries Provincial can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wineries Provincial to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wineries Provincial 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.
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. Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial to increase its market reach. Wineries Provincial 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wineries Provincial in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial 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, Wineries Provincial 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, Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Wineries Provincial in the consumer business. Now Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wineries Provincial to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers case study. Wineries Provincial can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wineries Provincial 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
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. Wineries Provincial 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. Wineries Provincial 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 Wineries Provincial 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.
Threats Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers are -
Environmental challenges
– Wineries Provincial 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. Wineries Provincial can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wineries Provincial in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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. Wineries Provincial 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Wineries Provincial 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.
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 Wineries Provincial business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wineries Provincial has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wineries Provincial needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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 Wineries Provincial.
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 Wineries Provincial in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wineries Provincial 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers .
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. Wineries Provincial needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wineries Provincial 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wineries Provincial is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Devonian Coast Wineries: Overcoming Provincial Barriers 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 Wineries Provincial needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.