Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience
Marketers are currently facing a 'crisis of immediacy' challenge: how to meet consumers' need to receive content, expertise, and personalized solutions in real time during their shopping experience. Today's digital technologies-such as video conferencing, location-based mobile apps, and augmented reality-provide a highly personalized and immersive environment that allows for interactivity and rich information exchange between the brand and consumer. We conducted in-depth interviews with over 35 retailers, large-scale surveys with international shoppers, and pilot projects with stores and banking institutions to study how companies are leveraging digital technologies to transform the customer experience. Our findings show that there are two main technology-based models that organizations are deploying to support customers' immediate needs: the remote expert and the digital assistant. We provide company examples of both models, as well as when they are most appropriate and success factors to inform managers.
Authors :: Salvatore Parise, Patricia J. Guinan, Ron Kafka
Swot Analysis of "Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience" written by Salvatore Parise, Patricia J. Guinan, Ron Kafka includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Immediacy Digital facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Leading teams, Marketing, Meetings and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Immediacy Digital, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Immediacy Digital 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Immediacy Digital
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 Immediacy Digital
Strengths Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Immediacy Digital in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Immediacy Digital
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Immediacy Digital does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Immediacy Digital in the sector have low bargaining power. Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Immediacy Digital to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Immediacy Digital is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Immediacy Digital digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Immediacy Digital 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.
Learning organization
- Immediacy Digital 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 Immediacy Digital is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Immediacy Digital in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Immediacy Digital has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Immediacy Digital to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Immediacy Digital has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Immediacy Digital 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 Immediacy Digital 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Immediacy Digital 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 Immediacy Digital in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Immediacy Digital to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Immediacy Digital to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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.
Weaknesses Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience are -
Need for greater diversity
– Immediacy Digital 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Immediacy Digital has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Immediacy Digital 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 - Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Immediacy Digital 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Immediacy Digital, firm in the HBR case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Immediacy Digital is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience, in the dynamic environment Immediacy Digital has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Immediacy Digital has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience, it seems that the employees of Immediacy Digital 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Immediacy Digital products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Immediacy Digital needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Immediacy Digital 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience | 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Immediacy Digital can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Immediacy Digital operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Immediacy Digital to increase its market reach. Immediacy Digital 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Immediacy Digital is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Immediacy Digital 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Immediacy Digital to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Immediacy Digital 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Immediacy Digital 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.
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. Immediacy Digital 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. Immediacy Digital 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
– Immediacy Digital 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.
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 Immediacy Digital in the consumer business. Now Immediacy Digital can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Immediacy Digital has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Immediacy Digital to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience case study. Immediacy Digital can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Immediacy Digital can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Immediacy Digital 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Immediacy Digital 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.
Threats Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Immediacy Digital is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Immediacy Digital 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.
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. Immediacy Digital 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 wage structure of Immediacy Digital
– 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 Immediacy Digital.
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. Immediacy Digital needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Immediacy Digital 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Immediacy Digital 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience .
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 Immediacy Digital in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline 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 Immediacy Digital.
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. Immediacy Digital can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience, Immediacy Digital 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 .
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 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Solving the Crisis of Immediacy: How Digital Technology Can Transform the Customer Experience 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 Immediacy Digital needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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