Case Study Description of Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry
Concept is a highly touted startup venture in distributed data processing computers. The company has only made one sale to date, but has an order backlog for its unique product and expects an almost vertical growth curve. The company has been courted seriously by potential partners in France and the United Kingdom. Management wishes to decide how best to set up distribution in Europe.
Swot Analysis of "Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry" written by Thomas V. Bonoma, Randy Masel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Courted Backlog facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, IT, Marketing, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Courted Backlog, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Courted Backlog 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Courted Backlog
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 Courted Backlog
Strengths Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Courted Backlog in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Courted Backlog to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Courted Backlog to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Courted Backlog is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Courted Backlog 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 Courted Backlog is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Courted Backlog in the sector have low bargaining power. Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Courted Backlog to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Courted Backlog is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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.
Organizational Resilience of Courted Backlog
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Courted Backlog does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Courted Backlog has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Courted Backlog to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Courted Backlog in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Courted Backlog 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Courted Backlog 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Courted Backlog 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 Thomas V. Bonoma, Randy Masel 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Courted Backlog digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Courted Backlog 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.
Weaknesses Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Courted Backlog 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry HBR case study mentions - Courted Backlog 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Courted Backlog 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry, in the dynamic environment Courted Backlog has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Courted Backlog has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Thomas V. Bonoma, Randy Masel suggests that, Courted Backlog 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry, is just above the industry average. Courted Backlog 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Courted Backlog 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Courted Backlog 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 - Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Courted Backlog 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. Courted Backlog 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Courted Backlog products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Courted Backlog needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Courted Backlog has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry | 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Courted Backlog to increase its market reach. Courted Backlog 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Courted Backlog 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, Courted Backlog 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, Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Courted Backlog is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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.
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 Courted Backlog 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.
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. Courted Backlog can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Courted Backlog 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Courted Backlog 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Courted Backlog can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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, Courted Backlog 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Courted Backlog 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, Courted Backlog can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Courted Backlog operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Courted Backlog 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. Courted Backlog 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.
Threats Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Courted Backlog 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.
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 Courted Backlog business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Courted Backlog can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Courted Backlog 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. Courted Backlog can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Courted Backlog 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Courted Backlog 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Courted Backlog has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Courted Backlog 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.
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. Courted Backlog 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry, Courted Backlog 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Courted Backlog 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.
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 Courted Backlog.
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 Courted Backlog 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry 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 Courted Backlog needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.