Case Study Description of Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A)
Two entrepreneurs of a successful competitive candy business are gearing up for the busy season and are looking at options to finance their company's growth over the short term.
Swot Analysis of "Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A)" written by Stewart Thornhill, Chris Sturby includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Candy Clodhoppers facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial finance, Growth strategy and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Candy Clodhoppers, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Candy Clodhoppers 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Candy Clodhoppers
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 Candy Clodhoppers
Strengths Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Candy Clodhoppers in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Candy Clodhoppers is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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.
Learning organization
- Candy Clodhoppers 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 Candy Clodhoppers is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Candy Clodhoppers in the sector have low bargaining power. Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Candy Clodhoppers to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Candy Clodhoppers 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Candy Clodhoppers digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Candy Clodhoppers in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Candy Clodhoppers
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Candy Clodhoppers does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Candy Clodhoppers is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Candy Clodhoppers is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) HBR case study mentions - Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Candy Clodhoppers has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Candy Clodhoppers is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 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 Candy Clodhoppers supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Candy Clodhoppers vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Candy Clodhoppers, firm in the HBR case study Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Candy Clodhoppers has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Candy Clodhoppers is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Candy Clodhoppers 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. Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Candy Clodhoppers 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 Candy Clodhoppers is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Candy Clodhoppers needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Candy Clodhoppers to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) | 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Candy Clodhoppers 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Candy Clodhoppers to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Candy Clodhoppers has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Candy Clodhoppers to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) case study. Candy Clodhoppers can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Candy Clodhoppers to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Loyalty marketing
– Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Candy Clodhoppers can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Candy Clodhoppers can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Candy Clodhoppers operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Candy Clodhoppers 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, Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Candy Clodhoppers can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Candy Clodhoppers can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Candy Clodhoppers can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Candy Clodhoppers 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 Candy Clodhoppers to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) are -
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.
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. Candy Clodhoppers needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Candy Clodhoppers 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Candy Clodhoppers has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Candy Clodhoppers can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing wage structure of Candy Clodhoppers
– 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 Candy Clodhoppers.
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. Candy Clodhoppers can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Candy Clodhoppers.
Environmental challenges
– Candy Clodhoppers 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. Candy Clodhoppers can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Candy Clodhoppers 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A), Candy Clodhoppers 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Krave's Candy Co.--Clodhoppers (A) 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 Candy Clodhoppers needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.