Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?
Todovino sells Spanish wines through wine clubs and web sites. Founder-CEO Gonzalo Verdera has partnered with many companies to create cobranded wine clubs, but now he is pondering a joint venture with one of his rivals, a brick-and-mortar wine chain. Todovino would provide the online presence for the chain. Should Verdera help his rival? What are the risks and benefits for Todovino?
Swot Analysis of "Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?" written by F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Lisa Brem includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Todovino Verdera facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Financial analysis, Growth strategy, Joint ventures and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Todovino Verdera, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Todovino Verdera 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Todovino Verdera
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 Todovino Verdera
Strengths Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Todovino Verdera in Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Todovino Verdera is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Todovino Verdera 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Todovino Verdera to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Todovino Verdera to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Todovino Verdera is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Todovino Verdera has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Todovino Verdera to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Todovino Verdera 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 Todovino Verdera in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Todovino Verdera has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Todovino Verdera in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Todovino Verdera 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 F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Lisa Brem 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Todovino Verdera 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Todovino Verdera in the sector have low bargaining power. Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Todovino Verdera to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Todovino Verdera 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, Todovino Verdera 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Todovino Verdera products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Todovino Verdera needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino Verdera has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Todovino Verdera 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. Todovino Verdera 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Todovino Verdera 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?, it seems that the employees of Todovino Verdera 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 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 Todovino Verdera supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Todovino Verdera vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Todovino Verdera is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Todovino Verdera needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Todovino Verdera to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Todovino Verdera 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.
Opportunities Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? | 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Todovino Verdera 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 Todovino Verdera to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Todovino Verdera 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Todovino Verdera 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Todovino Verdera to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Todovino Verdera 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.
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 Todovino Verdera in the consumer business. Now Todovino Verdera can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Todovino Verdera 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Todovino Verdera 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Todovino Verdera 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. Todovino Verdera 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Todovino Verdera 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.
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. Todovino Verdera can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Todovino Verdera is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Todovino Verdera 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Todovino Verdera can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? are -
Environmental challenges
– Todovino Verdera 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. Todovino Verdera can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend?, Todovino Verdera 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 .
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. Todovino Verdera 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Todovino Verdera 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.
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 Todovino Verdera in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Todovino Verdera needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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 Todovino Verdera business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Todovino Verdera 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Todovino Verdera 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Todovino Verdera with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Todovino Verdera.
Regulatory challenges
– Todovino Verdera needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino: Can Your Rival Be Your Friend? 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 Todovino Verdera needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
