SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Bloomin Brands (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Bloomin Brands is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Bloomin Brands can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bloomin Brands, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Bloomin Brands
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bloomin Brands
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Conglomerates sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bloomin Brands
Strengths of Bloomin Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bloomin Brands are -
Innovation driven organization
– Bloomin Brands is one of the most innovative firm in Conglomerates sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bloomin Brands is one of the leading players in the Conglomerates industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bloomin Brands has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Bloomin Brands staying ahead in the Conglomerates industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Conglomerates
– Bloomin Brands is one of the leading players in the Conglomerates industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Conglomerates industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Bloomin Brands in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Bloomin Brands 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 Conglomerates industry. The technology infrastructure of United States is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bloomin Brands in the Conglomerates sector have low bargaining power. Bloomin Brands has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bloomin Brands to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bloomin Brands 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.
Organizational Resilience of Bloomin Brands
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Bloomin Brands does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Bloomin Brands comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Conglomerates 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.
Training and development
– Bloomin Brands has one of the best training and development program in Conglomerates 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bloomin Brands has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bloomin Brands 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Conglomerates industry
– Bloomin Brands is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Bloomin Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bloomin Brands are -
High dependence on Bloomin Brands ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Bloomin Brands still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Conglomerates industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Bloomin Brands has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bloomin Brands is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Bloomin Brands to provide better information regarding Conglomerates products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Conglomerates industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Bloomin Brands 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 Conglomerates industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Bloomin Brands, in the dynamic environment of Conglomerates industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bloomin Brands 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
– From the 10K / annual statement of Bloomin Brands, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Conglomerates 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Bloomin Brands is just above the Conglomerates industry average. It 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Bloomin Brands strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Bloomin Brands 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bloomin Brands is one of the leading players in the Conglomerates industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Conglomerates industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Bloomin Brands needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bloomin Brands has some of the most successful models in the Conglomerates industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Bloomin Brands should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bloomin Brands products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bloomin Brands needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Bloomin Brands Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Bloomin Brands are -
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. Bloomin Brands can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bloomin Brands 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bloomin Brands has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Conglomerates sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Bloomin Brands to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bloomin Brands to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Bloomin Brands 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bloomin Brands in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Conglomerates industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bloomin Brands 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 Conglomerates industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bloomin Brands to increase its market reach. Bloomin Brands 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
– Bloomin Brands 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
– Bloomin Brands can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Conglomerates 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 Bloomin Brands 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bloomin Brands to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Bloomin Brands to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Conglomerates industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Bloomin Brands in the Conglomerates industry. Now Bloomin Brands can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Bloomin Brands External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Bloomin Brands are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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, Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands 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 Conglomerates industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bloomin Brands 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 Conglomerates industry.
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 Bloomin Brands business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Bloomin Brands in the Conglomerates sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Bloomin Brands needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Conglomerates industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bloomin Brands is facing in Conglomerates sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Bloomin Brands
– 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 Bloomin Brands.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bloomin Brands has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Conglomerates industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bloomin Brands needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Conglomerates 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Bloomin Brands may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Conglomerates sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bloomin Brands Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands 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 Bloomin Brands needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
