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, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, 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 -
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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vietnam's Vietnam has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vietnam's Vietnam 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
– 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.
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.
Organizational Resilience of Vietnam's Vietnam
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vietnam's Vietnam does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vietnam's Vietnam to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vietnam's Vietnam to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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
– 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 -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Vietnam has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Vietnam's Vietnam 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 - Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Vietnam's Vietnam products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vietnam's Vietnam needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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.
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.
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.
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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 Vietnam's Vietnam 's lucrative customers.
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.
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 -
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vietnam's Vietnam to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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. Vietnam's Vietnam can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vietnam's Vietnam 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, Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vietnam's Vietnam to increase its market reach. Vietnam's Vietnam 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Vietnam's Vietnam can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges 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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges, Vietnam's Vietnam may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vietnam's Vietnam 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 Vietnam's Embrace of ICT for Economic Development: Success and Future Challenges .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.