Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , B-R 31 Ice Cream is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that B-R 31 Ice Cream can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the B-R 31 Ice Cream, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of B-R 31 Ice Cream
2. Improving business portfolio management of B-R 31 Ice Cream
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Restaurants sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of B-R 31 Ice Cream
Strengths of B-R 31 Ice Cream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of B-R 31 Ice Cream are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– B-R 31 Ice Cream is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in Japan. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Japan. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Restaurants industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For B-R 31 Ice Cream digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of B-R 31 Ice Cream in the Services sector have low bargaining power. B-R 31 Ice Cream has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps B-R 31 Ice Cream to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of B-R 31 Ice Cream
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing B-R 31 Ice Cream does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Restaurants
– B-R 31 Ice Cream is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Restaurants industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled B-R 31 Ice Cream in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– B-R 31 Ice Cream has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– B-R 31 Ice Cream is present in almost all the verticals within the Restaurants industry. This has provided B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Restaurants industry
– B-R 31 Ice Cream has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled B-R 31 Ice Cream to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Restaurants industry. The sustainable margins have also helped B-R 31 Ice Cream to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Learning organization
- B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at B-R 31 Ice Cream emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– B-R 31 Ice Cream is one of the most innovative firm in Restaurants sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of B-R 31 Ice Cream in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of B-R 31 Ice Cream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of B-R 31 Ice Cream are -
Need for greater diversity
– B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of B-R 31 Ice Cream, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Restaurants industry. 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, B-R 31 Ice Cream has high operating costs in the Restaurants industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract B-R 31 Ice Cream lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
B-R 31 Ice Cream has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Restaurants industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though B-R 31 Ice Cream has some of the most successful models in the Restaurants industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. B-R 31 Ice Cream should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Restaurants industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, B-R 31 Ice Cream is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left B-R 31 Ice Cream vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of B-R 31 Ice Cream is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Restaurants industry, but B-R 31 Ice Cream needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help B-R 31 Ice Cream to focus more on services in the Restaurants industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that B-R 31 Ice Cream needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Restaurants industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at B-R 31 Ice Cream can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as B-R 31 Ice Cream is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Restaurants industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, B-R 31 Ice Cream is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Restaurants industry.
B-R 31 Ice Cream Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of B-R 31 Ice Cream are -
Loyalty marketing
– B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– B-R 31 Ice Cream has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Restaurants sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled B-R 31 Ice Cream to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help B-R 31 Ice Cream to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects B-R 31 Ice Cream can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Restaurants industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for B-R 31 Ice Cream in the Restaurants industry. Now B-R 31 Ice Cream can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of B-R 31 Ice Cream has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Restaurants industry. This can help B-R 31 Ice Cream to build a more holistic ecosystem for B-R 31 Ice Cream products in the Restaurants industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help B-R 31 Ice Cream to increase its market reach. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Restaurants industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for B-R 31 Ice Cream in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Restaurants industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– B-R 31 Ice Cream can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Restaurants sector. 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Restaurants industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. B-R 31 Ice Cream can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. B-R 31 Ice Cream can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats B-R 31 Ice Cream External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of B-R 31 Ice Cream are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 Restaurants industry and other sectors.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream prominent markets.
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 B-R 31 Ice Cream.
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 B-R 31 Ice Cream in the Restaurants sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, B-R 31 Ice Cream may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Restaurants sector.
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. B-R 31 Ice Cream 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for B-R 31 Ice Cream in Restaurants industry. The Restaurants 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.
Regulatory challenges
– B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 Restaurants industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 Restaurants industry.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that B-R 31 Ice Cream is facing in Restaurants sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of B-R 31 Ice Cream Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream 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 B-R 31 Ice Cream needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
