Heavitree Brewery A (HVTa) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Restaurants
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Heavitree Brewery A (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Heavitree Brewery A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Heavitree Brewery A
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Heavitree Brewery A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Heavitree Brewery A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Heavitree Brewery A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Heavitree Brewery A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Restaurants sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Heavitree Brewery A
Strengths of Heavitree Brewery A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Heavitree Brewery A are -
Digital Transformation in Restaurants industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Heavitree Brewery A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Heavitree Brewery A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Ability to lead change in Restaurants
– Heavitree Brewery A is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Restaurants industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Heavitree Brewery A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Heavitree Brewery A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Heavitree Brewery A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Heavitree Brewery A in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Restaurants industry
– Heavitree Brewery A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Heavitree Brewery A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Restaurants industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Heavitree Brewery A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Heavitree Brewery A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Heavitree Brewery A staying ahead in the Restaurants industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Heavitree Brewery A is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in United Kingdom. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United Kingdom. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Heavitree Brewery A has one of the best training and development program in Services industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Heavitree Brewery A in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Heavitree Brewery A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Heavitree Brewery A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Heavitree Brewery A comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Restaurants 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.
Weaknesses of Heavitree Brewery A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Heavitree Brewery A are -
Employees’ less understanding of Heavitree Brewery A strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Heavitree Brewery A 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 at Heavitree Brewery A, in the dynamic environment of Restaurants industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Heavitree Brewery A has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Heavitree Brewery A 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.
High dependence on Heavitree Brewery A ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Heavitree Brewery A still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Restaurants industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Heavitree Brewery A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Heavitree Brewery A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Restaurants industry, but Heavitree Brewery A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Heavitree Brewery A to focus more on services in the Restaurants industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Heavitree Brewery A 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 Restaurants industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Skills based hiring in Restaurants industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Heavitree Brewery A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Heavitree Brewery A to provide better information regarding Restaurants products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Heavitree Brewery A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Heavitree Brewery A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Heavitree Brewery A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Heavitree Brewery A is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Restaurants industry in last five years.
Heavitree Brewery A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Heavitree Brewery A are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Heavitree Brewery A can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Heavitree Brewery A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Heavitree Brewery A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Restaurants sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Heavitree Brewery A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Restaurants industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Heavitree Brewery A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Heavitree Brewery A can utilize new technology in the field of Restaurants industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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. Heavitree Brewery A can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Heavitree Brewery A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Heavitree Brewery A can develop new processes and procedures in Restaurants 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Heavitree Brewery A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Restaurants industry. This can help Heavitree Brewery A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Heavitree Brewery A products in the Restaurants industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Heavitree Brewery A 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. Heavitree Brewery A can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Heavitree Brewery A in the Restaurants industry. Now Heavitree Brewery A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Heavitree Brewery A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Heavitree Brewery A are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Heavitree Brewery A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Restaurants industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Heavitree Brewery A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Restaurants 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Restaurants industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Heavitree Brewery A 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Heavitree Brewery A is facing in Restaurants sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Restaurants industry are lowering. It can presents Heavitree Brewery A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Restaurants sector.
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. Heavitree Brewery A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Restaurants industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Heavitree Brewery A
– 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 Heavitree Brewery A.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Heavitree Brewery A 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.
Environmental challenges
– Heavitree Brewery A 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. Heavitree Brewery A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Restaurants industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Heavitree Brewery A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A 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 Heavitree Brewery A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.