The Boston Beer Company, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by The Boston Beer Company, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is a handy technique to understand the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) The Boston Beer Company, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The The Boston Beer Company, Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. maintains its dominant position in market by carefully analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the firm such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.


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The SWOT Analysis framework helps an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the The Boston Beer Company, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

• SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
• WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
• ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
•  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect The Boston Beer Company, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to The Boston Beer Company, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, The Boston Beer Company, Inc. has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. are –

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• Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years The Boston Beer Company, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years The Boston Beer Company, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
• High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.
• Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers & acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – The Boston Beer Company, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.

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Weakness of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where The Boston Beer Company, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a company can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

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• Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.
• Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, The Boston Beer Company, Inc. needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though The Boston Beer Company, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
• Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though The Boston Beer Company, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. are below the industry average.
• The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.

Opportunities for The Boston Beer Company, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as The Boston Beer Company, Inc. to increase its profitability.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for The Boston Beer Company, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for The Boston Beer Company, Inc. in other product categories.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable The Boston Beer Company, Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the The Boston Beer Company, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of The Boston Beer Company, Inc..
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.

Threats The Boston Beer Company, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.
• No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to The Boston Beer Company, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the The Boston Beer Company, Inc. profitability.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for The Boston Beer Company, Inc.

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

• Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
• SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
• The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.
• SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
• SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis The Boston Beer Company, Inc. managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

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SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

References / Citations & Bibliography

• M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
• A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
• O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
• L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
• R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)