Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky
Gauri Nanda, the inventor of Clocky, the alarm clock that rolls off the bed stand and forces its owner to find it, has to make critical decisions regarding the future of her nascent company. As sales of Clocky show signs of declining, she must decide whether to continue her focus on the alarm clock category or to branch out into new categories. If the former, the question is which segments to pursue and what features to develop, and, if the latter, the question is whether the concept of "humanizing technology" is something consumers would value in other domains. In addition, Nanda must decide how to continue marketing Clocky and its successors, given the potential for cannibalization. Clocky's success was largely attributable to the media's intense interest and coverage, and it is not clear such attention would carry over to other new product endeavors. Students are presented with a number of new product concepts and the findings from both qualitative and quantitative market research. This allows for a rich discussion of how managers can think creatively about consumer experiences to inform their innovation strategies.
Swot Analysis of "Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky" written by Elie Ofek, Jill Avery includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Clocky Nanda facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Market research, Strategy, Technology and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Clocky Nanda, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Clocky Nanda 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Clocky Nanda
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 Clocky Nanda
Strengths Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Clocky Nanda in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Clocky Nanda are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Clocky Nanda is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Clocky Nanda 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Clocky Nanda in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Clocky Nanda is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Clocky Nanda in the sector have low bargaining power. Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Clocky Nanda to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Clocky Nanda to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Clocky Nanda to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Clocky Nanda 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 Clocky Nanda is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Clocky Nanda 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Clocky Nanda is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Clocky Nanda is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Clocky Nanda 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Clocky Nanda 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Clocky Nanda, firm in the HBR case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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, Clocky Nanda is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, it seems that the employees of Clocky Nanda 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 Clocky Nanda products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Clocky Nanda needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Clocky Nanda is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Clocky Nanda 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 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 Clocky Nanda supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Clocky Nanda vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, is just above the industry average. Clocky Nanda 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.
Opportunities Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky | 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Clocky Nanda 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.
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. Clocky Nanda 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. Clocky Nanda 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Clocky Nanda 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Clocky Nanda 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, Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Clocky Nanda can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Clocky Nanda operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Clocky Nanda can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Clocky Nanda is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Clocky Nanda 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Clocky Nanda to increase its market reach. Clocky Nanda 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Clocky Nanda 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.
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 Clocky Nanda in the consumer business. Now Clocky Nanda can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Clocky Nanda to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Clocky Nanda to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Clocky Nanda has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Clocky Nanda to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky case study. Clocky Nanda can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky are -
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 Clocky Nanda business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Clocky Nanda 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky .
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 Clocky Nanda.
Increasing wage structure of Clocky Nanda
– 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 Clocky Nanda.
Environmental challenges
– Clocky Nanda 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. Clocky Nanda can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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. Clocky Nanda needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Clocky Nanda with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Clocky Nanda in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Clocky Nanda 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Clocky Nanda 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky, Clocky Nanda 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Nanda Home: Preparing for Life After Clocky 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 Clocky Nanda needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.