Case Study Description of Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises
It was summer of 2013, and the news of cyber-attacks and information security breaches was on the rise in India, as it was worldwide. Incidents such as the Axis bank's cyber-crime incident and the news of the American National Security Agency's global e-surveillance were creating consternation and dilemmas in the minds of information security consultants. One such consultant owned and operated an information security company, Percept Softech, a Lakshyaa Technology Lab's Jaipur franchise. The consultant was bogged down by a number of problems and dilemmas. The first was his marketing and business growth strategy, which was not helping him in promotion of his business. Information security solutions, spying, vulnerability checks, key logging and allied propositions were difficult to promote. Managing young millennial talent was another major problem for him. Apart from the woes of business growth, inefficiency in promotion and talent issues, the consultant was now facing another dilemma. Should he start a new business away from the umbrella of the Lakshyaa Technology Lab? Should he partner with a detective agency? Or should he relocate from Jaipur to a more central location (such as New Delhi) where perhaps people would be more aware of the importance of cyber security and students would be more interested in pursuing cyber security training?
Swot Analysis of "Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises" written by Nakul Gupta, Arjun Bhatnagar, Jyotsna Bhatnagar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cyber Security facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Leadership, Organizational culture and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cyber Security, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cyber Security 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cyber Security
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cyber Security
Strengths Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cyber Security in Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cyber Security has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cyber Security 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.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Cyber Security 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 Cyber Security in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Cyber Security is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Cyber Security is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Cyber Security 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 Nakul Gupta, Arjun Bhatnagar, Jyotsna Bhatnagar 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cyber Security is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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
– Cyber Security 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cyber Security digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cyber Security 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cyber Security 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cyber Security in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cyber Security to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cyber Security to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cyber Security is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cyber Security 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cyber Security 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 - Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cyber Security 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises, it seems that the employees of Cyber Security 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Cyber Security 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.
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 Cyber Security supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cyber Security vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cyber Security is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyber Security 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyber Security has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises | 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cyber Security 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cyber Security is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cyber Security 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, Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cyber Security 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cyber Security to increase its market reach. Cyber Security 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Cyber Security can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cyber Security 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Cyber Security to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cyber Security 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cyber Security can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cyber Security operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cyber Security in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cyber Security can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cyber Security has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cyber Security to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises case study. Cyber Security can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cyber Security is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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 Cyber Security.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cyber Security 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises .
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 Cyber Security business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Cyber Security in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Cyber Security 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cyber Security 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.
Increasing wage structure of Cyber Security
– 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 Cyber Security.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cyber Security 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 Cyber Security in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cyber Security 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
– Cyber Security 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyberpreneur's Wake-up Call: Cyber Security and Millennial Talent Crises 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 Cyber Security needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
