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 - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, 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 -
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Beenz.com Currency in the sector have low bargaining power. beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beenz.com Currency to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Beenz.com Currency 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 Beenz.com Currency in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Beenz.com Currency 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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.
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 -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David J. Arnold suggests that, Beenz.com Currency 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Beenz.com Currency 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Beenz.com Currency has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Beenz.com Currency 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Beenz.com Currency products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Beenz.com Currency needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business, is just above the industry average. Beenz.com Currency needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beenz.com Currency is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Beenz.com Currency 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 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.
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 -
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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Beenz.com Currency 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Beenz.com Currency 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, 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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Beenz.com Currency 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 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.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Beenz.com Currency to increase its market reach. Beenz.com Currency 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Beenz.com Currency 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.
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.
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.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beenz.com Currency 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 beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business .
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 .
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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Beenz.com Currency 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.
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 Beenz.com Currency.
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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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.
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.