Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A)
Rambus, Inc. was founded to develop a new type of high-speed memory chip technology to enable DRAMs to keep up with ever-faster microprocessors. After developing the technology, Rambus chose an unusual licensing approach to commercialize it. This case series describes the challenges facing Rambus as it attempts to make its technology a new, dominant standard in PCs, video game consoles, and devices that use DRAMs. Subsequent moves and countermoves are described. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Swot Analysis of "Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A)" written by Brian S. Silverman, Briana Huntsberger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rambus Drams facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Innovation, Intellectual property, Joint ventures, Marketing, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rambus Drams, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rambus Drams 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rambus Drams
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 Rambus Drams
Strengths Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rambus Drams in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rambus Drams 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Rambus Drams has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rambus Drams 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 Strategy & Execution industry
– Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rambus Drams to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rambus Drams to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Rambus Drams has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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.
Analytics focus
– Rambus Drams 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 Brian S. Silverman, Briana Huntsberger 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rambus Drams is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Rambus Drams has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Rambus Drams is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Rambus Drams 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 Rambus Drams is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Rambus Drams has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rambus Drams to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Rambus Drams in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Rambus Drams 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Rambus Drams has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Rambus Drams 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Rambus Drams products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Rambus Drams needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A), 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Brian S. Silverman, Briana Huntsberger suggests that, Rambus Drams 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) HBR case study mentions - Rambus Drams 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A), is just above the industry average. Rambus Drams 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rambus Drams 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 - Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Rambus Drams 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A), in the dynamic environment Rambus Drams has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Rambus Drams has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) | 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Rambus Drams to increase its market reach. Rambus Drams 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rambus Drams is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Rambus Drams 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Rambus Drams 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.
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. Rambus Drams 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. Rambus Drams 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.
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. Rambus Drams can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rambus Drams can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Rambus Drams 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rambus Drams has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rambus Drams to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) case study. Rambus Drams can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Rambus Drams in the consumer business. Now Rambus Drams can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rambus Drams can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rambus Drams operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Rambus Drams can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rambus Drams in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) are -
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Rambus Drams business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Rambus Drams 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rambus Drams has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rambus Drams needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rambus Drams 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Rambus Drams 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) .
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. Rambus Drams needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Rambus Drams.
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 Rambus Drams in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Rambus Drams
– 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 Rambus Drams.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Rambus Drams 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rambus Drams high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A), Rambus Drams 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea (A) 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 Rambus Drams needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.