Swot Analysis of "Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged)" written by David B. Yoffie, Rebecca Henderson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oxygen Mit's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oxygen Mit's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oxygen Mit's 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oxygen Mit's
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 Oxygen Mit's
Strengths Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oxygen Mit's in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Oxygen Mit's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Oxygen Mit's 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 brand equity
– Oxygen Mit's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oxygen Mit's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oxygen Mit's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Oxygen Mit's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oxygen Mit's 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Oxygen Mit's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oxygen Mit's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Oxygen Mit's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oxygen Mit's has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Innovation driven organization
– Oxygen Mit's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Oxygen Mit's 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 David B. Yoffie, Rebecca Henderson 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oxygen Mit's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oxygen Mit's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oxygen Mit's 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Oxygen Mit's needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged), 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Oxygen Mit's 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oxygen Mit's 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. Oxygen Mit's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oxygen Mit's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oxygen Mit's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oxygen Mit's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Oxygen Mit's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Oxygen Mit's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oxygen Mit's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Oxygen Mit's 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Oxygen Mit's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oxygen Mit's, firm in the HBR case study Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) | 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Oxygen Mit's 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oxygen Mit's 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oxygen Mit's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oxygen Mit's 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, Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oxygen Mit's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oxygen Mit's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) case study. Oxygen Mit's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Oxygen Mit's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oxygen Mit's 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 Oxygen Mit's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Oxygen Mit's 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. Oxygen Mit's 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oxygen Mit's 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 Oxygen Mit's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Oxygen Mit's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Oxygen Mit's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oxygen Mit's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Oxygen Mit's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oxygen Mit's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oxygen Mit's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oxygen Mit's 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oxygen Mit's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Oxygen Mit's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oxygen Mit's 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 Oxygen Mit's 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.
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 Oxygen Mit's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Oxygen Mit's.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oxygen Mit's 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oxygen Mit's 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.
Increasing wage structure of Oxygen Mit's
– 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 Oxygen Mit's.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oxygen Mit's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oxygen Mit's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen (Abridged) 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 Oxygen Mit's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.