Case Study Description of CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies
CoCubes.com, (CoCubes) an entrepreneurial firm, instituted a paradigm change in the way campus recruitment occurred in India. In a paradoxical environment of the high availability of a formally educated yet not readily employable talent pool in a growing economy, CoCubes offered unique value propositions to its dual set of customers (colleges and companies). It was critical for CoCubes to effectively manage engagement with the recruiting companies and attempt to change their mindset regarding recruitment from non-established, non-premier institutes. Conventionally, colleges have not paid to have their students placed. Getting colleges to see the value in this and to pay for it was critical for CoCubes to succeed and grow in the face of increasing competition. Debolina Dutta is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore. D.V.R. Seshadri is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
Swot Analysis of "CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies" written by Debolina Dutta, D.V.R. Seshadri includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cocubes Colleges facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cocubes Colleges, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cocubes Colleges 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cocubes Colleges
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 Cocubes Colleges
Strengths CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cocubes Colleges in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cocubes Colleges in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cocubes Colleges has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cocubes Colleges 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cocubes Colleges digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cocubes Colleges 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Cocubes Colleges is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Cocubes Colleges has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cocubes Colleges to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cocubes Colleges is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Cocubes Colleges
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cocubes Colleges 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 Cocubes Colleges in the sector have low bargaining power. CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cocubes Colleges to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cocubes Colleges 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Cocubes Colleges 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 Cocubes Colleges is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cocubes Colleges is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 Cocubes Colleges has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cocubes Colleges products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cocubes Colleges needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cocubes Colleges is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cocubes Colleges 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 - CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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, Cocubes Colleges 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 Cocubes Colleges 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Debolina Dutta, D.V.R. Seshadri suggests that, Cocubes Colleges 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cocubes Colleges is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Cocubes Colleges needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cocubes Colleges to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cocubes Colleges 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 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 Cocubes Colleges supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cocubes Colleges vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Cocubes Colleges 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.
Opportunities CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies | 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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. Cocubes Colleges can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Cocubes Colleges in the consumer business. Now Cocubes Colleges can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cocubes Colleges is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cocubes Colleges 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cocubes Colleges can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cocubes Colleges operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Cocubes Colleges can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Cocubes Colleges can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cocubes Colleges to increase its market reach. Cocubes Colleges 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 Cocubes Colleges can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Cocubes Colleges 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 Cocubes Colleges 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cocubes Colleges 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cocubes Colleges 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cocubes Colleges to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cocubes Colleges 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, Cocubes Colleges 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cocubes Colleges 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 Cocubes Colleges business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Cocubes Colleges
– 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 Cocubes Colleges.
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. Cocubes Colleges can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Cocubes Colleges 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cocubes Colleges has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cocubes Colleges 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Cocubes Colleges 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. Cocubes Colleges can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Cocubes Colleges 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cocubes Colleges is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 CoCubes.com: Connecting Colleges (to) Companies 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 Cocubes Colleges needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.