KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD
MAY 1991. Flying back from Venice, Paul Van de Velde thought back about the strange meeting he and Enrico Boldoni had earlier that day with a potential Italian investor. Enrico, an elegant forty something Italian, was the franchising manager for a major department store chain in Italy. He strongly believed in the Kipling brand, and after opening the first Italian Kipling shop in a mall near Rome, decided to switch into a higher gear - opening the next 25 stores! Enrico had found an investor willing to stake a great deal of money in the development of Kipling's franchise concept in Italy. After a short presentation of the Kipling concept, the man confirmed his interest in investing in Kipling with a minor Italian twist; instead of becoming a Kipling franchisee, he wanted to take over the whole company and become the franchisor! He offered to pay a??3.75 million for the company. Paul took a deep breath. Was this really what he was after when he entered the Italian market? Would he have to deal with this kind of issue when internationalizing Kipling? Did they really want to depend on this type of character for the future growth of the company? Was franchising the way to go? Learning objectives: Building a brand, globalizing a startup company, professionalizing a creative startup, modes of internationalization, financing growth, managing growth, startup teams.
Authors :: Benoit Leleux, Kurt Verweire, Miguel Meuleman
Swot Analysis of "KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD" written by Benoit Leleux, Kurt Verweire, Miguel Meuleman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kipling Italian facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Marketing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kipling Italian, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kipling Italian
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 Kipling Italian
Strengths KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kipling Italian in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kipling Italian is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kipling Italian has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kipling Italian has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Analytics focus
– Kipling Italian 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 Benoit Leleux, Kurt Verweire, Miguel Meuleman 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kipling Italian 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kipling Italian is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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.
Organizational Resilience of Kipling Italian
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kipling Italian does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Kipling Italian has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Kipling Italian is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Kipling Italian 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 Kipling Italian in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD are -
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 Kipling Italian supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kipling Italian vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Kipling Italian 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Kipling Italian 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kipling Italian is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kipling Italian has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kipling Italian is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Kipling Italian needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kipling Italian to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD, it seems that the employees of Kipling Italian 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD, in the dynamic environment Kipling Italian has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kipling Italian has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD HBR case study mentions - Kipling Italian 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
Kipling Italian 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Kipling Italian, firm in the HBR case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD | 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kipling Italian 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kipling Italian 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 Kipling Italian to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Kipling Italian in the consumer business. Now Kipling Italian can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kipling Italian can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kipling Italian operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Kipling Italian can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Kipling Italian can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 Kipling Italian 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Kipling Italian 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kipling Italian 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kipling Italian can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kipling Italian 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. Kipling Italian 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Kipling Italian can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kipling Italian 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, KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kipling Italian in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kipling Italian 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.
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 Kipling Italian business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Kipling Italian 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 Kipling Italian 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD .
Increasing wage structure of Kipling Italian
– 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 Kipling Italian.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kipling Italian can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kipling Italian has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kipling Italian 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.
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. Kipling Italian needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Kipling Italian in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD, Kipling Italian 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 KIPLING (A): MONKEY BUSINESS - KIPLING TRIES TO CONQUER THE WORLD 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 Kipling Italian needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
