beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business
Beenz.com, an incentive-based Web currency and customer management tool, is reassessing its business in August 2000, one year after launch. The original vision was to make the currency globally available and recognized. However, the company's rapid internationalization and growth have presented a number of pressures that challenge that vision.
Swot Analysis of "beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business" written by David J. Arnold includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Beenz.com Currency facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Internet, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beenz.com Currency, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beenz.com Currency 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beenz.com Currency
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 Beenz.com Currency
Strengths beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Beenz.com Currency in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Beenz.com Currency 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 David J. Arnold 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.
Organizational Resilience of Beenz.com Currency
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Beenz.com Currency does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Beenz.com Currency has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Beenz.com Currency has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Beenz.com Currency to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Beenz.com Currency digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Beenz.com Currency 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Beenz.com Currency in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Beenz.com Currency 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Beenz.com Currency has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Beenz.com Currency 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Beenz.com Currency is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Beenz.com Currency has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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
– Beenz.com Currency is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, it seems that the employees of Beenz.com Currency 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business HBR case study mentions - Beenz.com Currency 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Beenz.com Currency is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Beenz.com Currency needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Beenz.com Currency to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Beenz.com Currency supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Beenz.com Currency vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Beenz.com Currency, firm in the HBR case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Beenz.com Currency 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 Beenz.com Currency 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Beenz.com Currency 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Beenz.com Currency 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 - beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, in the dynamic environment Beenz.com Currency has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Beenz.com Currency has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Beenz.com Currency is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business | 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Beenz.com Currency 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. Beenz.com Currency 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Beenz.com Currency 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beenz.com Currency 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, as suggested in case study, beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Beenz.com Currency 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 Beenz.com Currency 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 Beenz.com Currency to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Beenz.com Currency can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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.
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. Beenz.com Currency can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Beenz.com Currency in the consumer business. Now Beenz.com Currency can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beenz.com Currency is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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.
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. Beenz.com Currency can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beenz.com Currency can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beenz.com Currency operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Beenz.com Currency 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 Beenz.com Currency 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.
Threats beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Beenz.com Currency has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Beenz.com Currency 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Beenz.com Currency with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Beenz.com Currency in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, Beenz.com Currency may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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.
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. Beenz.com Currency can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Beenz.com Currency needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Beenz.com Currency
– 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 Beenz.com Currency.
Environmental challenges
– Beenz.com Currency 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. Beenz.com Currency can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Beenz.com Currency 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Beenz.com Currency 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.
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 Beenz.com Currency business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Beenz.com Currency is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 Beenz.com Currency needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.