Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods

The proliferation of computer networks, the popularization of the World Wide Web, and the increasing availability of digital intellectual goods present producers and distributors of those goods with a unique set of opportunities and threats. Three different conceptual models, proposed and explicated here, focus on the experiential, legal, and organizational aspects of digital intellectual goods. They highlight the salient features of the digital revolution and facilitate strategic assessments and responses. Discusses strategic responses suggested by these models.

Authors :: Brent D. Beal, Daniel B. Marin

Topics :: Technology & Operations

Tags :: Intellectual property, IT, Regulation, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods" written by Brent D. Beal, Daniel B. Marin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Intellectual Digital facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Intellectual property, IT, Regulation, Social responsibility and Technology & Operations.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Intellectual Digital, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Intellectual Digital 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Intellectual Digital
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 Intellectual Digital

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Strengths Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Intellectual Digital in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods Harvard Business Review case study are -

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Intellectual Digital 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 Intellectual Digital in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Intellectual Digital has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Intellectual Digital 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Intellectual Digital is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Intellectual Digital in the sector have low bargaining power. Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Intellectual Digital to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Intellectual Digital 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.

Learning organization

- Intellectual Digital is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Intellectual Digital is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Intellectual Digital 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field

– Intellectual Digital 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 Intellectual Digital in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High brand equity

– Intellectual Digital has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Intellectual Digital to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Innovation driven organization

– Intellectual Digital is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Organizational Resilience of Intellectual Digital

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Intellectual Digital does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

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Weaknesses Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods are -

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods HBR case study mentions - Intellectual Digital 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Intellectual Digital products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Intellectual Digital needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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 Intellectual Digital supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Intellectual Digital vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Intellectual Digital 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Intellectual Digital 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Intellectual Digital 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 - Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods, 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Intellectual Digital is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Intellectual Digital needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Intellectual Digital to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods, is just above the industry average. Intellectual Digital 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods, in the dynamic environment Intellectual Digital has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Intellectual Digital has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Intellectual Digital has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

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Opportunities Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods | 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Intellectual Digital 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.

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. Intellectual Digital can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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 Intellectual Digital in the consumer business. Now Intellectual Digital can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Intellectual Digital 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Intellectual Digital 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Intellectual Digital can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Intellectual Digital operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.

Loyalty marketing

– Intellectual Digital 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 Intellectual Digital 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Intellectual Digital is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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

– Intellectual Digital can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Intellectual Digital can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Intellectual Digital 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 Technology & Operations segment.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Intellectual Digital has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Intellectual Digital to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods case study. Intellectual Digital can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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Threats Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Intellectual Digital has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Intellectual Digital 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.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Intellectual Digital will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Increasing wage structure of Intellectual Digital

– 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 Intellectual Digital.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Intellectual Digital 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.

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 Intellectual Digital in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Intellectual Digital high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Regulatory challenges

– Intellectual Digital 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods, Intellectual Digital 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 .

Environmental challenges

– Intellectual Digital 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. Intellectual Digital can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Intellectual Digital 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Intellectual Digital 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. Intellectual Digital needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Intellectual Digital 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods 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 Intellectual Digital needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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