New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes
Addresses the common mistakes made in new product development and launch. Many times customers' and suppliers' perceptions of the degree of product/market innovation do not match. One of them may view the innovations as a "breakthrough," but the other may view it only as an incremental improvement of an existing solution. Such a mismatch will inevitably lead to faculty commercialization. But even if the match is perfect, this note argues that breakthroughs and incremental new products require quite different new product development processes to enable commercial success.
Swot Analysis of "New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes" written by V. Kasturi Rangan, Kevin Bartus includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mistakes Incremental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mistakes Incremental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mistakes Incremental 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mistakes Incremental
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 Mistakes Incremental
Strengths New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mistakes Incremental in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mistakes Incremental 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mistakes Incremental has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mistakes Incremental 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Mistakes Incremental is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Mistakes Incremental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mistakes Incremental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mistakes Incremental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mistakes Incremental 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mistakes Incremental in the sector have low bargaining power. New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mistakes Incremental to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mistakes Incremental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mistakes Incremental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Mistakes Incremental is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Mistakes Incremental has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mistakes Incremental to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mistakes Incremental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mistakes Incremental in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Mistakes Incremental 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 V. Kasturi Rangan, Kevin Bartus 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.
Weaknesses New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 Mistakes Incremental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mistakes Incremental is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mistakes Incremental 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. Mistakes Incremental 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mistakes Incremental 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes, it seems that the employees of Mistakes Incremental 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mistakes Incremental 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mistakes Incremental, firm in the HBR case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mistakes Incremental products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mistakes Incremental needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 Mistakes Incremental 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mistakes Incremental is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Mistakes Incremental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mistakes Incremental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes | 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mistakes Incremental to increase its market reach. Mistakes Incremental 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mistakes Incremental 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mistakes Incremental can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mistakes Incremental operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mistakes Incremental 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.
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. Mistakes Incremental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mistakes Incremental 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mistakes Incremental 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, New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mistakes Incremental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mistakes Incremental to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes case study. Mistakes Incremental can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mistakes Incremental can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Mistakes Incremental 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. Mistakes Incremental 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mistakes Incremental is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mistakes Incremental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mistakes Incremental 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.
Threats New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mistakes Incremental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mistakes Incremental 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.
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 Mistakes Incremental in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Mistakes Incremental 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 Mistakes Incremental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Mistakes Incremental
– 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 Mistakes Incremental.
Regulatory challenges
– Mistakes Incremental 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mistakes Incremental 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes .
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. Mistakes Incremental needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mistakes Incremental 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.
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 Mistakes Incremental.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Mistakes Incremental 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes 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 Mistakes Incremental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
