Case Study Description of Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy
Charts the strategic shifts in the go-to-market strategy of Oracle Corp., with thousands of go-to-market partners of varying sizes and business models--many of which were also its fiercest competitors. In the past, Oracle's own salesforce had played a dominant role in its go-to-market strategy; however, the new millennium brought changing market dynamics and, thus, partnerships were becoming increasingly important to Oracle's success. Oracle was forced to consider how to reinvent its partnership strategy.
Authors :: Carlos Cordon, Ralf W. Seifert, Donna Everatt
Swot Analysis of "Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy" written by Carlos Cordon, Ralf W. Seifert, Donna Everatt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oracle's Oracle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategic planning, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oracle's Oracle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oracle's Oracle 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oracle's Oracle
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 Oracle's Oracle
Strengths Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oracle's Oracle in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oracle's Oracle to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oracle's Oracle to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oracle's Oracle 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Oracle's Oracle
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oracle's Oracle does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oracle's Oracle 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Oracle's Oracle in the sector have low bargaining power. Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oracle's Oracle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oracle's Oracle is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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.
Learning organization
- Oracle's Oracle 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 Oracle's Oracle is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oracle's Oracle are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Oracle's Oracle 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 recruit top talent
– Oracle's Oracle is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Oracle's Oracle is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Oracle's Oracle 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 Oracle's Oracle in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Oracle's Oracle products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oracle's Oracle needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Oracle's Oracle 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy, is just above the industry average. Oracle's Oracle needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy HBR case study mentions - Oracle's Oracle 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oracle's Oracle, firm in the HBR case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oracle's Oracle 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oracle's Oracle 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. Oracle's Oracle 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy, 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Oracle's Oracle supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oracle's Oracle vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oracle's Oracle is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oracle's Oracle 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.
Opportunities Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy | 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Oracle's Oracle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oracle's Oracle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oracle's Oracle 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, Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oracle's Oracle 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oracle's Oracle 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oracle's Oracle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Oracle's Oracle 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.
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 Oracle's Oracle in the consumer business. Now Oracle's Oracle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Oracle's Oracle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Oracle's Oracle can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Oracle's Oracle can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oracle's Oracle 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 Oracle's Oracle 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 Oracle's Oracle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Oracle's Oracle 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oracle's Oracle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oracle's Oracle to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy case study. Oracle's Oracle can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oracle's Oracle 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.
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 Oracle's Oracle in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy, Oracle's Oracle 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Oracle's Oracle 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. Oracle's Oracle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oracle's Oracle 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oracle's Oracle 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. Oracle's Oracle 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Oracle's Oracle 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oracle's Oracle 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oracle's Oracle 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.
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 Oracle's Oracle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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 Building Partnerships: Reinventing Oracle's Go-to-Market Strategy 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 Oracle's Oracle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.