Fresh Del Monte Produce (FDP) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Fresh Del Monte Produce (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Fresh Del Monte Produce is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fresh Del Monte Produce

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Fresh Del Monte Produce can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fresh Del Monte Produce, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Fresh Del Monte Produce can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Fresh Del Monte Produce
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fresh Del Monte Produce
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fresh Del Monte Produce

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Strengths of Fresh Del Monte Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Fresh Del Monte Produce are -

Training and development

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Fresh Del Monte Produce staying ahead in the Crops industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Crops industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Fresh Del Monte Produce have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Diverse revenue streams

– Fresh Del Monte Produce is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Fresh Del Monte Produce comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Crops 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.

High brand equity

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fresh Del Monte Produce to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Ability to lead change in Crops

– Fresh Del Monte Produce is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Crops industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Fresh Del Monte Produce in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Fresh Del Monte Produce 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

- Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Fresh Del Monte Produce emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Fresh Del Monte Produce is one of the leading players in the Crops 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Fresh Del Monte Produce in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

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Weaknesses of Fresh Del Monte Produce | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Fresh Del Monte Produce are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Fresh Del Monte Produce can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fresh Del Monte Produce is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Fresh Del Monte Produce, in the dynamic environment of Crops industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fresh Del Monte Produce has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Fresh Del Monte Produce is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fresh Del Monte Produce to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Fresh Del Monte Produce is just above the Crops 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Employees’ less understanding of Fresh Del Monte Produce strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

High dependence on Fresh Del Monte Produce ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Fresh Del Monte Produce still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Crops industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Fresh Del Monte Produce has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fresh Del Monte Produce is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Fresh Del Monte Produce to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Fresh Del Monte Produce products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Fresh Del Monte Produce has some of the most successful models in the Crops industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Fresh Del Monte Produce should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

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Fresh Del Monte Produce Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Fresh Del Monte Produce are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Crops industry.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Crops industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fresh Del Monte Produce 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

– Fresh Del Monte Produce can develop new processes and procedures in Crops 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Buying journey improvements

– Fresh Del Monte Produce can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Crops sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Fresh Del Monte Produce to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fresh Del Monte Produce to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fresh Del Monte Produce can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Crops industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Fresh Del Monte Produce 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. Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce 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.

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Threats Fresh Del Monte Produce External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Fresh Del Monte Produce are -

Consumer confidence and its impact on Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Crops industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Crops industry regulations.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce prominent markets.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Crops industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fresh Del Monte Produce can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Fresh Del Monte Produce may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Crops sector.

Environmental challenges

– Fresh Del Monte Produce 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. Fresh Del Monte Produce can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Fresh Del Monte Produce has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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

– Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Crops 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Fresh Del Monte Produce is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Fresh Del Monte Produce with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops 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. Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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 Fresh Del Monte Produce.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fresh Del Monte Produce Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce 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 Fresh Del Monte Produce needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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