Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement
In November 2013, GoldieBlox was accused of copyright infringement. It used the Beastie Boys song "Girls" in one of its advertisements promoting new toys for girls without permission. The company's reaction to file a lawsuit against the band was not well received and perhaps a little hasty.In the wake of the crisis, the chief executive officer of GoldieBlox Toy Company and her team had some decisions to make regarding how to handle the lawsuit they filed against the Beastie Boys that then backfired. The hostile environment was not conducive to the image of the company and the negative media was of concern to GoldieBox and its employees.
Swot Analysis of "Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement" written by Zahra Ladha Jiwani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Goldieblox Beastie facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Intellectual property and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices,
wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Goldieblox Beastie, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Goldieblox Beastie
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Goldieblox Beastie
Strengths Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Goldieblox Beastie in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Goldieblox Beastie in the sector have low bargaining power. Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Goldieblox Beastie to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Goldieblox Beastie is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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.
Organizational Resilience of Goldieblox Beastie
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Goldieblox Beastie does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Goldieblox Beastie is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Goldieblox Beastie in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Goldieblox Beastie has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Goldieblox Beastie is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Goldieblox Beastie is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Zahra Ladha Jiwani can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox Beastie in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Goldieblox Beastie has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Goldieblox Beastie is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Goldieblox Beastie needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Goldieblox Beastie to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Goldieblox Beastie 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. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Goldieblox Beastie has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Zahra Ladha Jiwani suggests that, Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Goldieblox Beastie products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Goldieblox Beastie needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement, in the dynamic environment Goldieblox Beastie has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Goldieblox Beastie has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Goldieblox Beastie 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Goldieblox Beastie is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement | 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
Buying journey improvements
– Goldieblox Beastie can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement suggest that firm 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Goldieblox Beastie in the consumer business. Now Goldieblox Beastie can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Goldieblox Beastie can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Goldieblox Beastie is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Goldieblox Beastie 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, Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Goldieblox Beastie to increase its market reach. Goldieblox Beastie 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Goldieblox Beastie has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Goldieblox Beastie to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement case study. Goldieblox Beastie can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox Beastie to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Goldieblox Beastie 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.
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. Goldieblox Beastie can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Goldieblox Beastie can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Goldieblox Beastie can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Goldieblox Beastie in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox Beastie
– 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 Goldieblox Beastie.
Regulatory challenges
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Goldieblox Beastie has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Goldieblox Beastie needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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 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. Goldieblox Beastie needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing 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 Goldieblox Beastie.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Goldieblox Beastie 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 field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Goldieblox Beastie 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Goldieblox Beastie can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Goldieblox Beastie business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Goldieblox Beastie is facing in Sales & Marketing 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 in the industry are lowering. It can presents Goldieblox Beastie with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox: Toy Company and Copyright Infringement 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 Goldieblox Beastie needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
