Swot Analysis of "From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged)" written by Elie Ofek, Margot Eiran includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Israeli Nation facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Israeli Nation, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Israeli Nation 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Israeli Nation
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 Israeli Nation
Strengths From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Israeli Nation in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Israeli Nation 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Israeli Nation is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Israeli Nation 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 Israeli Nation is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Israeli Nation 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Training and development
– Israeli Nation has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Israeli Nation in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Israeli Nation digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Israeli Nation 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Israeli Nation 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.
Organizational Resilience of Israeli Nation
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Israeli Nation does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Israeli Nation is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Israeli Nation is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged), is just above the industry average. Israeli Nation needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Israeli Nation is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 Israeli Nation has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Israeli Nation products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Israeli Nation needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Israeli Nation 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Israeli Nation is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged), it seems that the employees of Israeli Nation 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Israeli Nation, firm in the HBR case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged), in the dynamic environment Israeli Nation has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Israeli Nation has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Israeli Nation 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, Israeli Nation 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. Israeli Nation 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.
Opportunities From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) | 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) are -
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. Israeli Nation can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Israeli Nation 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Israeli Nation 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Israeli Nation can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Israeli Nation 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 Israeli Nation to increase its market reach. Israeli Nation 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Israeli Nation 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Israeli Nation 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Israeli Nation has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Israeli Nation to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) case study. Israeli Nation can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Israeli Nation to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Buying journey improvements
– Israeli Nation can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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.
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. Israeli Nation can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Israeli Nation is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Israeli Nation can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Israeli Nation 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) .
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 Israeli Nation in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Israeli Nation can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Israeli Nation has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Israeli Nation 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.
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 Israeli Nation business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Israeli Nation with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged), Israeli Nation 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Israeli Nation 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.
Environmental challenges
– Israeli Nation 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. Israeli Nation can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Israeli Nation 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Israeli Nation 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.
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.
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. Israeli Nation 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged) 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 Israeli Nation needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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