Case Study Description of Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?
The Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? case centers on the potential and challenges of entering an emerging market. It provides a brief overview of the Ethiopian market, market reforms and policies, and the business environment faced by foreign companies. Three multinational businesses, CareCo, ShoeCo, and MedCo, must decide whether and how to enter the Ethiopian market. Students are asked to make a recommendation for each company based on the attractiveness of the market, the factors that matter most for success, and an assessment of what applies to the companies.
Swot Analysis of "Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?" written by John A. Quelch, Sunru Yong includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ethiopian Ethiopia facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ethiopian Ethiopia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ethiopian Ethiopia
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 Ethiopian Ethiopia
Strengths Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ethiopian Ethiopia in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Ethiopian Ethiopia is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ethiopian Ethiopia in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Ethiopian Ethiopia is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Ethiopian Ethiopia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Ethiopian Ethiopia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ethiopian Ethiopia in the sector have low bargaining power. Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ethiopian Ethiopia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Ethiopian Ethiopia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ethiopian Ethiopia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ethiopian Ethiopia to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ethiopian Ethiopia to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ethiopian Ethiopia has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Analytics focus
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 John A. Quelch, Sunru Yong 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.
Weaknesses Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? are -
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 Ethiopian Ethiopia supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ethiopian Ethiopia vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ethiopian Ethiopia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Ethiopian Ethiopia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ethiopian Ethiopia to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopian Ethiopia has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ethiopian Ethiopia 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. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ethiopian Ethiopia is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?, is just above the industry average. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ethiopian Ethiopia, firm in the HBR case study Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Opportunities Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? | 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? are -
Manufacturing automation
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ethiopian Ethiopia can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 Ethiopian Ethiopia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ethiopian Ethiopia has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ethiopian Ethiopia to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? case study. Ethiopian Ethiopia can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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. Ethiopian Ethiopia can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 Ethiopian Ethiopia to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ethiopian Ethiopia in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Ethiopian Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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. Ethiopian Ethiopia needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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. Ethiopian Ethiopia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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 Ethiopian Ethiopia in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ethiopian Ethiopia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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. Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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 Ethiopian Ethiopia.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ethiopian Ethiopia 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.
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. Ethiopian Ethiopia can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity? 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 Ethiopian Ethiopia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.