Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain
The case describes the efforts of Reliance Retail in establishing a dedicated supply chain for sourcing bananas directly from farmers and selling them through Reliance's retail outlets in urban India. Reliance intervenes at multiple points in the supply chain, educating the farmers about better ways of planting, growing and harvesting bananas, introducing hygienic techniques of ripening and bypassing several layers of middlemen. This results in greater income for farmers, lesser wastage in the supply chain and better quality of fruits for the consumers. While Reliance's efforts with bananas seem to be a success, there are various challenges in scaling the model and leveraging the supply chain to source other fruits and vegetables. By describing the challenges and various tradeoffs that Reliance had to make, the case highlights how a large commercial organization such as Reliance can establish a viable business model that makes a positive impact on the lives of poor farmers and traders.
Swot Analysis of "Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain" written by Sourav Mukherji, Milena Mueller, Kunal Basu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Reliance Bananas facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Reliance Bananas, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Reliance Bananas
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 Reliance Bananas
Strengths Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Reliance Bananas in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Bananas is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Reliance Bananas has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Reliance Bananas 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Reliance Bananas in the sector have low bargaining power. Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Reliance Bananas to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Reliance Bananas is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Reliance Bananas digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Reliance Bananas 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Reliance Bananas has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Reliance Bananas 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Innovation driven organization
– Reliance Bananas is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Reliance Bananas to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Reliance Bananas to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Reliance Bananas has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Reliance Bananas to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Reliance Bananas 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 - Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Bananas is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Reliance Bananas needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Reliance Bananas 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, Reliance Bananas 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.
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 Reliance Bananas supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Reliance Bananas vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Reliance Bananas is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain, it seems that the employees of Reliance Bananas 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain, is just above the industry average. Reliance Bananas needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Reliance Bananas is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Reliance Bananas 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.
Opportunities Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain | 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Reliance Bananas 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.
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 Reliance Bananas in the consumer business. Now Reliance Bananas 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, Reliance Bananas can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Reliance Bananas operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Reliance Bananas has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Reliance Bananas to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain case study. Reliance Bananas can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Reliance Bananas 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Reliance Bananas to increase its market reach. Reliance Bananas will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Reliance Bananas 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Reliance Bananas 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Reliance Bananas can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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.
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. Reliance Bananas can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Reliance Bananas can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Reliance Bananas 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. Reliance Bananas 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.
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 Reliance Bananas 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.
Threats Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain are -
Environmental challenges
– Reliance Bananas 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. Reliance Bananas can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Reliance Bananas can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Reliance Bananas has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Reliance Bananas 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Reliance Bananas 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Reliance Bananas 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Reliance Bananas 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Reliance Bananas 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.
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 Reliance Bananas.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Reliance Bananas 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain .
Increasing wage structure of Reliance Bananas
– 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 Reliance Bananas.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain, Reliance Bananas 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 .
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. Reliance Bananas needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Retail: Creating Social Value through Banana Supply Chain 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 Reliance Bananas needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
