EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business
An ethical hacker had recently started his entrepreneurial venture, EnterAll InfoSec Solutions. A technologist who believed that "ethical hacking" had huge market potential, he and his partner were searching for a business model that would address the information security needs of corporate clients, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and government institutions. Ethical hacking was a specialized and relatively nascent field, and the entrepreneur foresaw many challenges in convincing customers to use the services of his start-up company. The immediate concerns were how to expand the business, identify an optimal business model, explore sources of funding and create a strong team. Varsha Verma is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Atul Arun Pathak is affiliated with Xavier School of Management. Dharma Raju Bathini is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Arun Pereira is affiliated with Indian School of Business.
Swot Analysis of "EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business" written by Varsha Verma, Atul Arun Pathak, Dharma Raju Bathini, Arun Pereira includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hacking Enterall facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, 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%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hacking Enterall, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hacking Enterall 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hacking Enterall
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 Hacking Enterall
Strengths EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hacking Enterall in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hacking Enterall is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hacking Enterall is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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
– Hacking Enterall is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hacking Enterall 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hacking Enterall 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
– Hacking Enterall has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hacking Enterall 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hacking Enterall in the sector have low bargaining power. EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hacking Enterall to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Hacking Enterall 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 Hacking Enterall 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)
– Hacking Enterall 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hacking Enterall in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Hacking Enterall 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hacking Enterall 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. Hacking Enterall 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 Hacking Enterall has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Hacking Enterall supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hacking Enterall vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Varsha Verma, Atul Arun Pathak, Dharma Raju Bathini, Arun Pereira suggests that, Hacking Enterall 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 Hacking Enterall 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business, is just above the industry average. Hacking Enterall 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hacking Enterall 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business HBR case study mentions - Hacking Enterall 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Hacking Enterall 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.
Opportunities EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business | 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business are -
Loyalty marketing
– Hacking Enterall 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hacking Enterall 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.
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 Hacking Enterall in the consumer business. Now Hacking Enterall can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hacking Enterall to increase its market reach. Hacking Enterall 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hacking Enterall 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.
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. Hacking Enterall can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Hacking Enterall 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. Hacking Enterall 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hacking Enterall 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hacking Enterall is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Hacking Enterall can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hacking Enterall has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hacking Enterall to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business case study. Hacking Enterall can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hacking Enterall 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hacking Enterall 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hacking Enterall to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business are -
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 Hacking Enterall in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hacking Enterall is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Hacking Enterall 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. Hacking Enterall can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hacking Enterall 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business, Hacking Enterall 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hacking Enterall with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Hacking Enterall
– 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 Hacking Enterall.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hacking Enterall 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.
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.
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 Hacking Enterall business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hacking Enterall has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hacking Enterall 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hacking Enterall 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 EnterAll InfoSec Solutions: Growing an Ethical Hacking Business 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 Hacking Enterall needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
