Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges
Vietnam has made impressive economic gains over a period of three decades, following the Doi Moi reforms of 1986. Before reform, the country's socialist economy had been unable to displace the poverty that had plagued the country in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. After reform, Vietnam has experienced many years of sustained growth, as evidenced by its advances on several economic performance rankings. By 2014, Vietnam's rankings compared favourably with those of many of its Asian neighbours. A major feature of the country's strategy for economic development was its emphasis on information and computing technologies. Students will analyze Vietnam's past successes to extract lessons that can lead to additional future success.
Swot Analysis of "Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges" written by Vu Minh Khuong, Robert D. Austin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vietnam's Vietnam facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vietnam's Vietnam, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vietnam's Vietnam
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 Vietnam's Vietnam
Strengths Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vietnam's Vietnam in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vu Minh Khuong, Robert D. Austin 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.
High brand equity
– Vietnam's Vietnam has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vietnam's Vietnam to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Vietnam's Vietnam has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vietnam's Vietnam in the sector have low bargaining power. Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vietnam's Vietnam to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vietnam's Vietnam is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Vietnam in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Vietnam's Vietnam digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Vietnam's Vietnam is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Vietnam's Vietnam is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Vietnam's Vietnam needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Vietnam's Vietnam to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges, is just above the industry average. Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Vietnam's Vietnam has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vietnam's Vietnam is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Vietnam's Vietnam, firm in the HBR case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges | 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vietnam's Vietnam is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vietnam's Vietnam can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vietnam's Vietnam operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
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 Vietnam's Vietnam in the consumer business. Now Vietnam's Vietnam can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Vietnam's Vietnam 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. Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Vietnam's Vietnam to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Vietnam's Vietnam to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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 Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Vietnam's Vietnam can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vietnam's Vietnam has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vietnam's Vietnam to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges case study. Vietnam's Vietnam can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Vietnam's Vietnam with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vietnam's Vietnam has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vietnam's Vietnam needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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 Vietnam's Vietnam.
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 Vietnam's Vietnam in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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. Vietnam's Vietnam needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations 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 Vietnam's Vietnam business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vietnam's Vietnam is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Vietnam's Vietnam
– 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 Vietnam's Vietnam.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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. Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Vietnam needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.