Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative
A survival strategy was needed for the Food Store department of the Northern Lakes Cooperative. The 85-person Food Store department, one of eleven departments at the Northern Lakes Cooperative, had not been profitable for years. While not profitable, it served the needs of its Co-op members by providing a grocery service and serving as an anchor in the Co-op Mall.
Authors :: Barry C. Foltos, Carol J. Gaumer, Amit J. Shah
Swot Analysis of "Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative" written by Barry C. Foltos, Carol J. Gaumer, Amit J. Shah includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lakes Cooperative facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Performance measurement and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices,
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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lakes Cooperative, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lakes Cooperative
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 Lakes Cooperative
Strengths Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lakes Cooperative in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Lakes Cooperative 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 Lakes Cooperative is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Lakes Cooperative has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lakes Cooperative in the sector have low bargaining power. Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lakes Cooperative to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Lakes Cooperative is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lakes Cooperative in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lakes Cooperative 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.
High brand equity
– Lakes Cooperative has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lakes Cooperative to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lakes Cooperative to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lakes Cooperative to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Lakes Cooperative is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lakes Cooperative 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.
Weaknesses Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative are -
Need for greater diversity
– Lakes Cooperative 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative, it seems that the employees of Lakes Cooperative 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Lakes Cooperative 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Lakes Cooperative is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Lakes Cooperative needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lakes Cooperative to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Lakes Cooperative 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative HBR case study mentions - Lakes Cooperative 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lakes Cooperative is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative, in the dynamic environment Lakes Cooperative has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lakes Cooperative has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Lakes Cooperative, firm in the HBR case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Lakes Cooperative products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lakes Cooperative needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative | 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lakes Cooperative can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lakes Cooperative operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Lakes Cooperative in the consumer business. Now Lakes Cooperative can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Lakes Cooperative 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lakes Cooperative 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lakes Cooperative can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lakes Cooperative 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 Lakes Cooperative to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Lakes Cooperative can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Lakes Cooperative 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lakes Cooperative has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lakes Cooperative to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative case study. Lakes Cooperative can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lakes Cooperative can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
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. Lakes Cooperative 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
– Lakes Cooperative 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Lakes Cooperative can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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.
Threats Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative, Lakes Cooperative 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Lakes Cooperative
– 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 Lakes Cooperative.
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 Lakes Cooperative business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Lakes Cooperative 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. Lakes Cooperative can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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. Lakes Cooperative will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Lakes Cooperative 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lakes Cooperative with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Lakes Cooperative can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Lakes Cooperative in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Lakes Cooperative.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lakes Cooperative has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lakes Cooperative 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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 Food Store of the Northern Lakes Cooperative 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 Lakes Cooperative needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.