OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape
OWNI was founded in April 2009 as a copyright-free online news and image distribution firm. As part of a web agency that developed web content and graphics for French companies, it insisted that all content produced could be made freely available to others under the Creative Commons licence. OWNI delivered hard-hitting news, sourced in the beginning mostly from bloggers and later supplemented by a team of investigative journalists. Set up to challenge the dominance of traditional French media, OWNI sought to carve out a niche for itself as a provider of richly illustrated, insightful news articles that were available to the public at no cost. Yet, despite its aspirations, the recognition it had received in the form of industry awards and the commitment of its employees, the firm filed for bankruptcy by the end of 2012. A former journalist at OWNI considers its impact on French media, what it represented, what changes - if any - it sparked and what it could have accomplished had it achieved what it set out to do. What were the challenges of growing and maintaining a unique business model in the face of competition and dwindling resources that OWNI's management failed to meet?
Swot Analysis of "OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape" written by Jean-Philippe Vergne, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Owni French facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Owni French, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Owni French 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Owni French
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 Owni French
Strengths OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Owni French in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Owni French 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 Owni French is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Owni French has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Owni French to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Owni French 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Owni French is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Owni French to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Owni French to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Owni French 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Owni French is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Owni French is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Owni French has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Owni French 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Owni French 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 lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Owni French is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Owni French in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Owni French in the sector have low bargaining power. OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Owni French to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape, in the dynamic environment Owni French has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Owni French has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Owni French 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Owni French is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape, is just above the industry average. Owni French 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Owni French, firm in the HBR case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Owni French 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Owni French 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. Owni French 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape, it seems that the employees of Owni French 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Owni French 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 - OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 Owni French has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Owni French products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Owni French needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape | 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape are -
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. Owni French can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Owni French 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Owni French 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 Owni French to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Owni French to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Loyalty marketing
– Owni French 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Owni French is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Owni French 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Owni French to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Owni French in the consumer business. Now Owni French can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Owni French 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, OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Owni French to increase its market reach. Owni French 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, Owni French 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.
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. Owni French can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Owni French 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.
Threats OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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.
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 Owni French.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Owni French 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Owni French with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Owni French 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Owni French is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Owni French 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.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Owni French will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Owni French 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
– Owni French 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. Owni French can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape, Owni French may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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. Owni French needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Owni French 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 OWNI: Disrupting the French Media Landscape 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 Owni French needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
