Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players
Global trade has taken off over the past decade, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are reaping rewards in developing markets. The authors describe four political and four socio-economic challenges presented by these markets, and describe five strategies for surmounting these challenges, using examples of successful Canadian and British SMEs that are leading the way in fast-growth markets.
Swot Analysis of "Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players" written by Becky Reuber, Carole Couper, Danielle Goldfarb includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Smes Markets facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Smes Markets, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Smes Markets 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Smes Markets
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 Smes Markets
Strengths Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Smes Markets in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Smes Markets 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 Smes Markets in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Smes Markets 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 Smes Markets is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Smes Markets is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Smes Markets to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Smes Markets to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Smes Markets in the sector have low bargaining power. Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Smes Markets to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Smes Markets in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Smes Markets 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.
Training and development
– Smes Markets has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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.
Organizational Resilience of Smes Markets
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Smes Markets does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Smes Markets digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Smes Markets 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Smes Markets is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Smes Markets 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.
Weaknesses Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Smes Markets 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Smes Markets has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Smes Markets 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 - Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Smes Markets is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Smes Markets has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Smes Markets products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Smes Markets needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Smes Markets 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players, in the dynamic environment Smes Markets has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Smes Markets has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Smes Markets 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players HBR case study mentions - Smes Markets 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.
Opportunities Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players | 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Smes Markets 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. Smes Markets can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Smes Markets 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Smes Markets to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Smes Markets 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Smes Markets can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Smes Markets 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Smes Markets can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Smes Markets 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Smes Markets is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Smes Markets has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Smes Markets to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players case study. Smes Markets can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Smes Markets to increase its market reach. Smes Markets will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Developing new processes and practices
– Smes Markets 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Smes Markets can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Smes Markets operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Smes Markets 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Smes Markets 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.
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. Smes Markets needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Smes Markets business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Smes Markets 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 Smes Markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players, Smes Markets 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Smes Markets has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Smes Markets 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.
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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Smes Markets in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Smes Markets 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.
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. Smes Markets 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. Smes Markets can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Succeeding in Fast-Growth Markets: Strategies for Smaller Players 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 Smes Markets needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
