After three years of trading in relative obscurity, the emergence of bitcoin in 2013 as a viable cryptocurrency is promising both to open up new possibilities to entrepreneurs and incumbent firms and to pose challenges to regulators such as the U.S. Federal Reserve. Rising in value from just $0.05 in mid-2010 to over $1,000 by November 2013, bitcoin is to some people the 21st century version of Tulipmania and to others a viable alternative to fiat currencies. Bitcoin's popularity has prompted the development of competing cryptocurrencies, the establishment of a foundation to promote its interests and the emergence of legitimate and grey market entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the currency itself and its features. Its position as a currency concerns regulators around the world, and hackers have already exploited security gaps in service providers such as Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange platform, for their own benefit. Looking at recent developments, what will the future of bitcoin be?
Swot Analysis of "Bitcoin" written by Jean-Philippe Vergne, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bitcoin Regulators facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bitcoin case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bitcoin casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bitcoin case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bitcoin Regulators, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bitcoin case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bitcoin Regulators
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bitcoin Regulators
Strengths Bitcoin | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bitcoin Regulators in Bitcoin Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bitcoin Regulators in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Bitcoin Regulators
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bitcoin Regulators does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bitcoin Regulators digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bitcoin 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.
Learning organization
- Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin Regulators is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bitcoin Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bitcoin Regulators in the sector have low bargaining power. Bitcoin has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bitcoin Regulators to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bitcoin Regulators has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bitcoin Regulators 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
– Bitcoin Regulators is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bitcoin Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Bitcoin Regulators has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bitcoin Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bitcoin Regulators is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bitcoin are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Bitcoin Regulators has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bitcoin Regulators to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Bitcoin | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bitcoin are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bitcoin Regulators is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Bitcoin Regulators needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bitcoin Regulators to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jean-Philippe Vergne, Ken Mark suggests that, Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bitcoin Regulators is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Bitcoin can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bitcoin HBR case study mentions - Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bitcoin Regulators 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 - Bitcoin should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bitcoin, it seems that the employees of Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin Regulators, firm in the HBR case study Bitcoin needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bitcoin, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Opportunities Bitcoin | 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 Bitcoin are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bitcoin Regulators to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin Regulators to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Bitcoin Regulators 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. Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bitcoin Regulators 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, Bitcoin, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bitcoin Regulators can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Bitcoin Regulators can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Bitcoin Regulators can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bitcoin 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bitcoin Regulators can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bitcoin Regulators to increase its market reach. Bitcoin Regulators 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 Bitcoin Regulators 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Threats Bitcoin External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bitcoin are -
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 Bitcoin Regulators in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bitcoin Regulators 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.
Environmental challenges
– Bitcoin Regulators 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. Bitcoin Regulators can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of Bitcoin Regulators
– 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 Bitcoin Regulators.
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 Bitcoin Regulators business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bitcoin Regulators 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.
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 Bitcoin Regulators.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bitcoin Regulators in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Bitcoin Regulators can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Bitcoin Regulators needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Bitcoin Regulators 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin Regulators needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
