The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation
Israel enjoyed the highest concentration of technology start-ups in the world per capita. Despite regional instability, the country maintained strong economic growth and was considered a high-tech powerhouse. But not all Israelis benefited. Between the 1980s and 2010s, income distribution had widened. By 2015, 20 business groups -- nearly all family-owned -- controlled one in four listed companies through corporate pyramids. Public anger over the high cost of living, which many believed was due to a lack of competition, led to a series of protests. Some academics and members of the Knesset (Parliament) called for reforms to limit the activities of corporate pyramids.
Swot Analysis of "The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation" written by Rafael Di Tella, Christine Snively includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pyramids Israelis facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Technology and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pyramids Israelis, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pyramids Israelis 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 The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pyramids Israelis
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pyramids Israelis
Strengths The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pyramids Israelis in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pyramids Israelis in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pyramids Israelis is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pyramids Israelis in the sector have low bargaining power. The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pyramids Israelis to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Pyramids Israelis is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Pyramids Israelis in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pyramids Israelis has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pyramids Israelis to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pyramids Israelis to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pyramids Israelis has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pyramids Israelis 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pyramids Israelis 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pyramids Israelis digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pyramids Israelis 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Pyramids Israelis is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Pyramids Israelis has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pyramids Israelis to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pyramids Israelis 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pyramids Israelis has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Pyramids Israelis even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation HBR case study mentions - Pyramids Israelis takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation, it seems that the employees of Pyramids Israelis 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pyramids Israelis products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pyramids Israelis needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pyramids Israelis, firm in the HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pyramids Israelis 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 industry using digital technology.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Pyramids Israelis supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pyramids Israelis vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Pyramids Israelis 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rafael Di Tella, Christine Snively suggests that, Pyramids Israelis 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 industry.
Opportunities The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pyramids Israelis has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pyramids Israelis to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pyramids Israelis in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Pyramids Israelis can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pyramids Israelis 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 Organizational Development segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pyramids Israelis has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pyramids Israelis to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study. Pyramids Israelis can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pyramids Israelis 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Pyramids Israelis 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, Pyramids Israelis 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.
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 Pyramids Israelis 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pyramids Israelis is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pyramids Israelis 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 Pyramids Israelis to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pyramids Israelis can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Pyramids Israelis can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pyramids Israelis 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.
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 Pyramids Israelis business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pyramids Israelis 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 prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pyramids Israelis can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pyramids Israelis with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Pyramids Israelis.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pyramids Israelis 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 the industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pyramids Israelis has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pyramids Israelis needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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. Pyramids Israelis 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.
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 Pyramids Israelis in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pyramids Israelis in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Pyramids Israelis 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation 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 the case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation 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 the Harvard case study The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation 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 The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation is 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 Pyramids Israelis needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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