Cracker Barrel Old (CBRL) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Restaurants
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cracker Barrel Old (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cracker Barrel Old is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cracker Barrel Old
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cracker Barrel Old can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cracker Barrel Old, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cracker Barrel Old
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cracker Barrel Old
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Restaurants sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cracker Barrel Old
Strengths of Cracker Barrel Old | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cracker Barrel Old are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Digital Transformation in Restaurants industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cracker Barrel Old digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cracker Barrel Old has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cracker Barrel Old has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Restaurants industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Cracker Barrel Old have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Restaurants industry
– Cracker Barrel Old has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cracker Barrel Old to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Restaurants industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cracker Barrel Old to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cracker Barrel Old has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Organizational Resilience of Cracker Barrel Old
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Cracker Barrel Old does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Restaurants industry
– Cracker Barrel Old is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Learning organization
- Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Cracker Barrel Old emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cracker Barrel Old in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Cracker Barrel Old is one of the most innovative firm in Restaurants sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cracker Barrel Old in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Cracker Barrel Old has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cracker Barrel Old to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Cracker Barrel Old | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cracker Barrel Old are -
Skills based hiring in Restaurants industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Cracker Barrel Old, in the dynamic environment of Restaurants industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cracker Barrel Old has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cracker Barrel Old is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Cracker Barrel Old to provide better information regarding Restaurants products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Cracker Barrel Old needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Restaurants industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Cracker Barrel Old is just above the Restaurants 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cracker Barrel Old is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Cracker Barrel Old strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Cracker Barrel Old Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Cracker Barrel Old are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cracker Barrel Old to increase its market reach. Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cracker Barrel Old to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cracker Barrel Old can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cracker Barrel Old operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Restaurants sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Cracker Barrel Old can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cracker Barrel Old 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.
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. Cracker Barrel Old can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Cracker Barrel Old 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.
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 Cracker Barrel Old in the Restaurants industry. Now Cracker Barrel Old can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cracker Barrel Old is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Threats Cracker Barrel Old External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Cracker Barrel Old are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cracker Barrel Old is facing in Restaurants sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Cracker Barrel Old 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.
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. Cracker Barrel Old needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Restaurants industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cracker Barrel Old has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Restaurants industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cracker Barrel Old 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.
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. Cracker Barrel Old can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Cracker Barrel Old.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Increasing wage structure of Cracker Barrel Old
– 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 Cracker Barrel Old.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old prominent markets.
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. Cracker Barrel Old 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Restaurants industry are lowering. It can presents Cracker Barrel Old with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Restaurants sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cracker Barrel Old 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cracker Barrel Old Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old 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 Cracker Barrel Old needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.