Case Study Description of BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs
In 2008, an ambitious entrepreneur was eager to succeed in India's corporate catering industry despite having no prior experience. She learned the intricacies of the business and developed processes and systems that made her company stand out among the competition. However, an inflationary surge in food prices exposed the weaknesses in her business model-namely, the fixed-price contracts and her resolve to self-finance the venture. The entrepreneur also faced new competitors who were able to undercut her prices because they could leverage alternative revenue streams to compensate for the increased food costs. Should she make changes to her business or was it time to exit? Dolphy M. Abraham is affiliated with Alliance University. Mohan Gopinath is affiliated with Alliance University.
Authors :: Dolphy M. Abraham, Mohan Gopinath, Nandini Balasubramaniam
Swot Analysis of "BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs" written by Dolphy M. Abraham, Mohan Gopinath, Nandini Balasubramaniam includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dolphy Alliance facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs casestudy better are - – technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dolphy Alliance, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dolphy Alliance
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 Dolphy Alliance
Strengths BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dolphy Alliance in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Dolphy Alliance has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dolphy Alliance 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Dolphy Alliance is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Dolphy Alliance 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)
– Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Dolphy Alliance 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 Dolphy Alliance is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dolphy Alliance in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Dolphy Alliance 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 Dolphy Alliance in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dolphy Alliance is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dolphy Alliance in the sector have low bargaining power. BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dolphy Alliance to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dolphy Alliance 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dolphy Alliance 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dolphy Alliance is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs, it seems that the employees of Dolphy Alliance 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Dolphy M. Abraham, Mohan Gopinath, Nandini Balasubramaniam suggests that, Dolphy Alliance is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Dolphy Alliance, firm in the HBR case study BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Dolphy Alliance supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dolphy Alliance vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs, is just above the industry average. Dolphy Alliance 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs HBR case study mentions - Dolphy Alliance 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Dolphy Alliance 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, Dolphy Alliance 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. Dolphy Alliance 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.
Opportunities BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs | 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dolphy Alliance to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Buying journey improvements
– Dolphy Alliance can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dolphy Alliance to increase its market reach. Dolphy Alliance 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dolphy Alliance 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.
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 Dolphy Alliance 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.
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 Dolphy Alliance in the consumer business. Now Dolphy Alliance can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Dolphy Alliance 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. Dolphy Alliance 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dolphy Alliance is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dolphy Alliance 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dolphy Alliance can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dolphy Alliance operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dolphy Alliance 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, Dolphy Alliance 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
– Dolphy Alliance 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.
Threats BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dolphy Alliance with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dolphy Alliance 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dolphy Alliance 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.
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 Dolphy Alliance.
Increasing wage structure of Dolphy Alliance
– 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 Dolphy Alliance.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dolphy Alliance has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dolphy Alliance 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.
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.
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 Dolphy Alliance business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Dolphy Alliance 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. Dolphy Alliance can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dolphy Alliance is facing in Leadership & Managing People 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. Dolphy Alliance 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs, Dolphy Alliance 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 BN Spice N Nice Kitchens Pvt., Ltd.: Runaway Costs 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 Dolphy Alliance needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.