Fraud risk management: A small business perspective SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fraud risk management: A small business perspective
Small businesses face big challenges when it comes to managing fraud risks. Financial strain, rapid growth, and a lack of resources and expertise create ample opportunity for motivated fraudsters to take advantage of small businesses. In this article, we draw upon insights from our years as fraud investigators to offer seven practical recommendations to help small business leaders prevent and detect fraud in this unique environment. These strategies can help even the smallest company make a big difference when it comes to fraud risk management.
Swot Analysis of "Fraud risk management: A small business perspective" written by Megan F. Hess, James H. Cottrell Jr. includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fraud Fraudsters facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Risk management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fraud risk management: A small business perspective casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fraud risk management: A small business perspective
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fraud Fraudsters, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fraud Fraudsters
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 Fraud Fraudsters
Strengths Fraud risk management: A small business perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fraud Fraudsters in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fraud Fraudsters has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fraud Fraudsters 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
– Fraud risk management: A small business perspective firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fraud Fraudsters to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fraud Fraudsters to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Fraud Fraudsters has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fraud Fraudsters to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fraud Fraudsters is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fraud risk management: A small business perspective are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Fraud Fraudsters has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud Fraudsters in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fraud Fraudsters digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fraud Fraudsters has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fraud Fraudsters in the sector have low bargaining power. Fraud risk management: A small business perspective has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fraud Fraudsters to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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
– Fraud Fraudsters 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 Megan F. Hess, James H. Cottrell Jr. 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fraud Fraudsters is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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.
Weaknesses Fraud risk management: A small business perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fraud risk management: A small business perspective are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fraud Fraudsters 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fraud Fraudsters is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud Fraudsters 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Fraud risk management: A small business perspective HBR case study mentions - Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective, is just above the industry average. Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective, in the dynamic environment Fraud Fraudsters has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fraud Fraudsters has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud Fraudsters 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 - Fraud risk management: A small business perspective should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fraud Fraudsters is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Fraud risk management: A small business perspective | 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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. Fraud Fraudsters 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. Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fraud Fraudsters can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fraud Fraudsters operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Fraud Fraudsters can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fraud Fraudsters is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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.
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. Fraud Fraudsters can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fraud Fraudsters 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.
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. Fraud Fraudsters can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fraud Fraudsters to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fraud Fraudsters can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fraud Fraudsters can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fraud Fraudsters 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, Fraud risk management: A small business perspective, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Fraud risk management: A small business perspective External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fraud risk management: A small business perspective are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fraud Fraudsters 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.
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 Fraud Fraudsters business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fraud Fraudsters 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.
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. Fraud Fraudsters needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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. Fraud Fraudsters 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fraud Fraudsters 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective .
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. Fraud Fraudsters can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Fraud Fraudsters needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fraud Fraudsters is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fraud Fraudsters 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Fraud Fraudsters
– 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 Fraud Fraudsters.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud risk management: A small business perspective 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 Fraud Fraudsters needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.