Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B)
Supplement to case IN1281. This case tells the story of InVenture, a data science company based in California, that has created a machine learning algorithm to identify the creditworthiness of those with no credit history by tracking their mobile data patterns. With this technology they define a credit score and can issue a loan almost instantly to the borrower via a mobile phone. The technology behind InVenture has been used to develop a smart phone app - Mkopo Rahisi - which enables loans to be approved quickly to small business owners in Kenya.
Swot Analysis of "Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B)" written by Philip Parker, Carolyn Wendell includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Inventure Kenya facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Entrepreneurship and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Inventure Kenya, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Inventure Kenya 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Inventure Kenya
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 Inventure Kenya
Strengths Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Inventure Kenya in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Inventure Kenya in the sector have low bargaining power. Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Inventure Kenya to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Inventure Kenya has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Training and development
– Inventure Kenya has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Inventure Kenya to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Inventure Kenya to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Inventure Kenya 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 Philip Parker, Carolyn Wendell 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Inventure Kenya is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Inventure Kenya
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Inventure Kenya does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Inventure Kenya has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Inventure Kenya 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Inventure Kenya is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Inventure Kenya is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Inventure Kenya 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.
Weaknesses Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Inventure Kenya has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Inventure Kenya products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Inventure Kenya needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Inventure Kenya 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Inventure Kenya is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Philip Parker, Carolyn Wendell suggests that, Inventure Kenya 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.
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 Inventure Kenya supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Inventure Kenya vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Inventure Kenya, firm in the HBR case study Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B), in the dynamic environment Inventure Kenya has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Inventure Kenya has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) HBR case study mentions - Inventure Kenya 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Inventure Kenya 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. Inventure Kenya 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Inventure Kenya 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) | 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Inventure Kenya 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Inventure Kenya 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Inventure Kenya has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Inventure Kenya to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) case study. Inventure Kenya can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Inventure Kenya to increase its market reach. Inventure Kenya 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.
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 Inventure Kenya 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Inventure Kenya can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Inventure Kenya 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Inventure Kenya 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Inventure Kenya to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Inventure Kenya can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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.
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. Inventure Kenya can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Inventure Kenya 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, Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Inventure Kenya 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Inventure Kenya 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.
Threats Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) are -
Regulatory challenges
– Inventure Kenya 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 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.
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 Inventure Kenya.
Environmental challenges
– Inventure Kenya 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. Inventure Kenya can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Inventure Kenya is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Inventure Kenya 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.
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 Inventure Kenya 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.
Increasing wage structure of Inventure Kenya
– 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 Inventure Kenya.
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. Inventure Kenya 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Inventure Kenya 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Inventure Kenya 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. Inventure Kenya needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Bringing Quick Loans to the Unbankable in Kenya (B) 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 Inventure Kenya needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.