Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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
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 focuses on the challenges Rambus faced as it attempts to make its technology a new, dominant standard in PCs, video game consoles, and devices that use DRAMs.
Swot Analysis of "Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea" 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 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 casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea
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 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 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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 | 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 Harvard Business Review case study are -
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.
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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Rambus Drams 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 Rambus Drams in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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.
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.
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 are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rambus Drams in the sector have low bargaining power. Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rambus Drams to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rambus Drams 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Rambus Drams is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rambus Drams 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. Rambus Drams 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Rambus Drams 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Rambus Drams, firm in the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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 Rambus Drams 's lucrative customers.
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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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 Rambus Drams has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
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 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea, 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.
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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rambus Drams is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Rambus Drams needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rambus Drams to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea | 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 are -
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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Rambus Drams can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rambus Drams 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 Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rambus Drams to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Rambus Drams 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 Rambus Drams 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.
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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Rambus Drams 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, Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Rambus Drams 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.
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 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 are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rambus Drams with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 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.
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.
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. Rambus Drams can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Rambus Drams 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.
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, 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 .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rambus Drams 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Rambus Drams is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rambus, Inc.: Commercializing the Billion Dollar Idea 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 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 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 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 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.