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Dave & Buster’s Entertainment (PLAY) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dave & Buster’s Entertainment (United States)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dave & Buster’s Entertainment can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment
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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment




Strengths of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment are -

Strong track record of project management in the Restaurants industry

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Learning organization

- Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dave & Buster’s Entertainment emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is present in almost all the verticals within the Restaurants industry. This has provided Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 recruit top talent

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is one of the leading players in the Restaurants 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

High brand equity

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to lead change in Restaurants

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Restaurants industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Dave & Buster’s Entertainment in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.






Weaknesses of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment are -

Lack of clear differentiation of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has some of the most successful models in the Restaurants industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

High dependence on Dave & Buster’s Entertainment ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment lucrative customers.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 strategic competitive environment developments

– As Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is planning to shift buying processes online.

Need for greater diversity

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Restaurants industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.




Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dave & Buster’s Entertainment operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Restaurants sector.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Restaurants industry. This can help Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to build a more holistic ecosystem for Dave & Buster’s Entertainment products in the Restaurants industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.




Threats Dave & Buster’s Entertainment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Restaurants sector.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment.

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. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Regulatory challenges

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment prominent markets.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Dave & Buster’s Entertainment demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in Restaurants industry and other sectors.

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. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Restaurants industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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.

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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment in the Restaurants sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Increasing wage structure of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment

– 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment 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 Dave & Buster’s Entertainment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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