Case Study Description of E-comics: Forecasting Demand
Mala Srivastava and Gaurav Thapar are affiliated with NMIMS University.After spending a few years in the corporate world, in 2012, a young entrepreneur in India decided to start up his own venture developing mobile applications that supported interactive comic content. Called TodTales, the innovative e-comic would incorporate music, interactive games and augmented reality in a comic book format that would encourage young children to read. He had raised the initial seed funding from his own and his partner's personal resources and an angel investor. The prototype was ready for demonstration and received positive responses from parents during a focus group study conducted in Mumbai. With the hope of going commercial by the end of 2014, the founder knew that he should start the next stage of development by convincing prospective investors that his idea had commercial potential and would quickly find a market not only in India but around the world.
Swot Analysis of "E-comics: Forecasting Demand" written by Mala Srivastava, Gaurav Thapar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Comic Interactive facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in E-comics: Forecasting Demand case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the E-comics: Forecasting Demand casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of E-comics: Forecasting Demand
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in E-comics: Forecasting Demand case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Comic Interactive, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Comic Interactive 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in E-comics: Forecasting Demand case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Comic Interactive
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 Comic Interactive
Strengths E-comics: Forecasting Demand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Comic Interactive in E-comics: Forecasting Demand Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Comic Interactive is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the E-comics: Forecasting Demand are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Comic Interactive 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 Comic Interactive is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in E-comics: Forecasting Demand Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Comic Interactive in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Comic Interactive 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Comic Interactive is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Comic Interactive in the sector have low bargaining power. E-comics: Forecasting Demand has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Comic Interactive to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Comic Interactive is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Comic Interactive is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in E-comics: Forecasting Demand Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Comic Interactive 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.
High brand equity
– Comic Interactive has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Comic Interactive to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Comic Interactive has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Comic Interactive 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– E-comics: Forecasting Demand firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Comic Interactive to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Comic Interactive to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses E-comics: Forecasting Demand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of E-comics: Forecasting Demand are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand, is just above the industry average. Comic Interactive 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As E-comics: Forecasting Demand HBR case study mentions - Comic Interactive takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Comic Interactive is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 Comic Interactive 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 - E-comics: Forecasting Demand should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand, 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.
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 Comic Interactive supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - E-comics: Forecasting Demand, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Comic Interactive vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Comic Interactive is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Comic Interactive 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 Comic Interactive 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Comic Interactive has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mala Srivastava, Gaurav Thapar suggests that, Comic Interactive 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.
Opportunities E-comics: Forecasting Demand | 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand are -
Manufacturing automation
– Comic Interactive 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Comic Interactive to increase its market reach. Comic Interactive 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Comic Interactive 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.
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. Comic Interactive 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. Comic Interactive 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, Comic Interactive is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Comic Interactive 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, Comic Interactive 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, E-comics: Forecasting Demand, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Comic Interactive 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 Comic Interactive to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Comic Interactive has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Comic Interactive to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the E-comics: Forecasting Demand case study. Comic Interactive can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Comic Interactive can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Comic Interactive 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Comic Interactive to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Comic Interactive can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Comic Interactive operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Comic Interactive 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.
Threats E-comics: Forecasting Demand External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study E-comics: Forecasting Demand are -
Regulatory challenges
– Comic Interactive 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.
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 Comic Interactive business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Comic Interactive.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Comic Interactive 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Comic Interactive has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Comic Interactive 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.
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 Comic Interactive in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Comic Interactive is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Comic Interactive needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Comic Interactive 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Comic Interactive
– 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 Comic Interactive.
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.
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. Comic Interactive can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 E-comics: Forecasting Demand 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 Comic Interactive needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
