Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World
A burgeoning mobile application entrepreneur has developed an interesting potential product with her friends. However, when she encounters an investment opportunity, she decides to seek legal advice for the first time in her business life. As a result of her initial meeting with a lawyer, she realizes how unprepared she is and some of the tough questions that she will need to answer.
Authors :: Matthew Wong, Adrienne Ng, Darren Meister
Swot Analysis of "Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World" written by Matthew Wong, Adrienne Ng, Darren Meister includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Legal Unprepared facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Legal Unprepared, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Legal Unprepared
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 Legal Unprepared
Strengths Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Legal Unprepared in Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Legal Unprepared has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Legal Unprepared to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Legal Unprepared
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Legal Unprepared does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Legal Unprepared is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Legal Unprepared is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Legal Unprepared 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Legal Unprepared is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Legal Unprepared digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Legal Unprepared 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Legal Unprepared 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 Legal Unprepared in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Legal Unprepared 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.
Weaknesses Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Legal Unprepared is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Legal Unprepared 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, Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Legal Unprepared products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Legal Unprepared needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World HBR case study mentions - Legal Unprepared 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Legal Unprepared has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Need for greater diversity
– Legal Unprepared 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Legal Unprepared 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 - Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World, is just above the industry average. Legal Unprepared 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Legal Unprepared is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Legal Unprepared needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Legal Unprepared to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World | 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World are -
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 Legal Unprepared in the consumer business. Now Legal Unprepared can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Legal Unprepared is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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.
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. Legal Unprepared 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. Legal Unprepared 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Legal Unprepared 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.
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. Legal Unprepared can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Legal Unprepared can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Legal Unprepared 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Legal Unprepared 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
– Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Legal Unprepared to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Legal Unprepared can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Legal Unprepared operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Legal Unprepared can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Legal Unprepared 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Legal Unprepared 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, Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World, 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Legal Unprepared 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Legal Unprepared 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Legal Unprepared with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Legal Unprepared 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.
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. Legal Unprepared can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Legal Unprepared 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Legal Unprepared 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 Legal Unprepared business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Legal Unprepared has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Legal Unprepared 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Legal Unprepared 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 Legal Unprepared 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Innovate LLP: Legal Dilemmas in the Start-up World 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 Legal Unprepared needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
