Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard
Symbian, a joint venture owned by companies who collectively sold a dominant share of the world's cell phones, faced competition from Microsoft in developing the operating system for "smartphones," which integrated mobile communications and computing functions. In 2003, Symbian's challenges included: 1) persuading its owners to adopt Symbian software rather than internally developed solutions; 2) determining whether to cede enterprise markets to Microsoft and focus only on much larger consumer segments; and 3) strengthening relationships with cellular network operators, whom Microsoft had targeted as alliance partners after it was unable to sell software to Symbian's owners.
Authors :: Fernando F. Suarez, Thomas R. Eisenmann
Swot Analysis of "Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard" written by Fernando F. Suarez, Thomas R. Eisenmann includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Symbian Symbian's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Entrepreneurship, Joint ventures, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Symbian Symbian's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Symbian Symbian's 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Symbian Symbian's
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 Symbian Symbian's
Strengths Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Symbian Symbian's in Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Symbian Symbian's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Symbian Symbian's 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Symbian Symbian's 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Symbian Symbian's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Symbian Symbian's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Symbian Symbian's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Symbian Symbian's 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Symbian Symbian's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Symbian Symbian's 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 Fernando F. Suarez, Thomas R. Eisenmann 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Symbian Symbian's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Symbian Symbian's 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Symbian Symbian's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Symbian Symbian's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Symbian Symbian's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Symbian Symbian's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Symbian Symbian's 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.
Weaknesses Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Symbian Symbian's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard, it seems that the employees of Symbian Symbian's 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian Symbian's 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard HBR case study mentions - Symbian Symbian's 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Symbian Symbian's has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Symbian Symbian's even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Symbian Symbian's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Symbian Symbian's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Symbian Symbian's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard, is just above the industry average. Symbian Symbian's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Symbian Symbian's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Symbian Symbian's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Symbian Symbian's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Symbian Symbian's 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 - Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard | 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Symbian Symbian's 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, Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Symbian Symbian's in the consumer business. Now Symbian Symbian's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Symbian Symbian's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Symbian Symbian's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard case study. Symbian Symbian's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Symbian Symbian's 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Symbian Symbian's 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 Symbian Symbian's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Symbian Symbian's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Symbian Symbian's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Symbian Symbian's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Symbian Symbian's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Symbian Symbian's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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.
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 Symbian Symbian's 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, Symbian Symbian's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Symbian Symbian's 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Symbian Symbian's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Symbian Symbian's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Symbian Symbian's 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.
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 Symbian Symbian's.
Increasing wage structure of Symbian Symbian's
– 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 Symbian Symbian's.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard, Symbian Symbian's 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Symbian Symbian's 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Symbian Symbian's 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.
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. Symbian Symbian's 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Symbian Symbian's 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard .
Environmental challenges
– Symbian Symbian's 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. Symbian Symbian's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Symbian Symbian's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Symbian Symbian's in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard 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 Symbian Symbian's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.