Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce
In July 2014, supermarket chain Wegmans received notification from supplier Wawona Packing Co. that its peaches arrived in Australia with a small trace of Listeria monocytogenes. While some countries such as Australia allowed low-levels of listeria to be present in certain produce, the U.S. had a zero-tolerance policy, and Wawona issued a voluntary recall of its peaches in the U.S. CEO Danny Wegman considered how Wegmans could become more proactive in food safety and what preventative action could be taken in the future. He considered what rules and regulations should be put into place domestically. What role should Wegmans and the food industry play in this approach?
Swot Analysis of "Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Christine Snively includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wegmans Listeria facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wegmans Listeria, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wegmans Listeria
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 Wegmans Listeria
Strengths Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wegmans Listeria in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wegmans Listeria in the sector have low bargaining power. Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wegmans Listeria to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wegmans Listeria is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Learning organization
- Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans Listeria is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wegmans Listeria digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wegmans Listeria has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Wegmans Listeria is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Wegmans Listeria has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Training and development
– Wegmans Listeria has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
Analytics focus
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Ray A. Goldberg, Christine Snively 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wegmans Listeria in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wegmans Listeria is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans Listeria 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Wegmans Listeria has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Wegmans Listeria 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wegmans Listeria is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Wegmans Listeria needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wegmans Listeria to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wegmans Listeria 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 - Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, in the dynamic environment Wegmans Listeria has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wegmans Listeria has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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 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 Wegmans Listeria supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wegmans Listeria vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans Listeria has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wegmans Listeria 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. Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce | 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Wegmans Listeria can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wegmans Listeria 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Wegmans Listeria is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wegmans Listeria to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Wegmans Listeria in the consumer business. Now Wegmans Listeria can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Wegmans Listeria 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wegmans Listeria 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Wegmans Listeria can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wegmans Listeria 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, Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wegmans Listeria 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wegmans Listeria to increase its market reach. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Wegmans Listeria can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
Threats Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce are -
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 Wegmans Listeria in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wegmans Listeria 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.
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. Wegmans Listeria needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce, Wegmans Listeria 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 .
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 Wegmans Listeria.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Wegmans Listeria business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Wegmans Listeria can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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. Wegmans Listeria 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Wegmans Listeria 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Wegmans Listeria
– 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 Wegmans Listeria.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wegmans Listeria is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce 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 Wegmans Listeria needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.