Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population
The vice-president and managing director, Nokia India, must decide whether to do an all-India launch of Nokia's newest service offering for the emerging markets called Nokia Lifetools (NLT). The NLT pilot was very successful with consumer adoption and retention rates over 70 per cent, however, offering services and applications that come directly loaded onto a handset was new for Nokia and put them in direct competition with service providers, and required them to develop a very differently abled distribution strategy. It could not avoid these important stakeholders in the telecommunication value chain as they were also very important partners whose cooperation was key to Nokia's success. Successfully launching NLT in India could shift the telecommunications industry globally. The decision facing the vice-president is likely one of the most important business decisions he will make in his life.
Authors :: Ariff Kachra, M.B Sarkar, Madhok Sud Kirti
Swot Analysis of "Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population" written by Ariff Kachra, M.B Sarkar, Madhok Sud Kirti includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nlt Nokia facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nlt Nokia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nlt Nokia 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nlt Nokia
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 Nlt Nokia
Strengths Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nlt Nokia in Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Nlt Nokia 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 Nlt Nokia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nlt Nokia is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Nlt Nokia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nlt Nokia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nlt Nokia 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nlt Nokia 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 Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nlt Nokia 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Nlt Nokia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nlt Nokia has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nlt Nokia 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
– Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nlt Nokia to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nlt Nokia to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Nlt Nokia 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 Ariff Kachra, M.B Sarkar, Madhok Sud Kirti 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.
Organizational Resilience of Nlt Nokia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nlt Nokia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nlt Nokia in the sector have low bargaining power. Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nlt Nokia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Nlt Nokia has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population, is just above the industry average. Nlt Nokia 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nlt Nokia 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nlt Nokia 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population, it seems that the employees of Nlt Nokia don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population, 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ariff Kachra, M.B Sarkar, Madhok Sud Kirti suggests that, Nlt Nokia is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Nlt Nokia 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nlt Nokia, firm in the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nlt Nokia is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nlt Nokia 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. Nlt Nokia 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.
Opportunities Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population | 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nlt Nokia 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.
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. Nlt Nokia can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Nlt Nokia can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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, Nlt Nokia is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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.
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 Nlt Nokia in the consumer business. Now Nlt Nokia can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nlt Nokia 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nlt Nokia has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nlt Nokia to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population case study. Nlt Nokia can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nlt Nokia 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nlt Nokia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nlt Nokia 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nlt Nokia to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nlt Nokia 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nlt Nokia 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nlt Nokia 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.
Threats Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population are -
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. Nlt Nokia 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.
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. Nlt Nokia needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Nlt Nokia 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nlt Nokia 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.
Increasing wage structure of Nlt Nokia
– 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 Nlt Nokia.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nlt Nokia 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population .
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. Nlt Nokia can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nlt Nokia is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Nlt Nokia.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population, Nlt Nokia 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
– Nlt Nokia 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. Nlt Nokia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nlt Nokia 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nokia Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Life Tools: A Strategic Innovation to Tap Into India's Rural and Newly Urban Population 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 Nlt Nokia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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