Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers
In fewer than ten days during the summer of 2016, millions of smartphone users around the world went crazy over PokA?mon Go, an augmented reality videogame app. If only all new high-technology products-and their investors-could enjoy such runaway success! Alas, the road to new technologies can be bumpy, and marketers of new high-tech products face numerous obstacles. Six perils await these marketers: significant market uncertainty, significant technological uncertainty, issues of compatibility within a product's complex multi-component system, struggles to orchestrate self-reinforcing network effects, challenges of navigating ecosystem complexities and competition, and inherent risks of making hard choices among multiple product-market options with significant path dependency. This article discusses these dangers and concludes with advice regarding steps marketers can and should take to make the journey to market less perilous.
Swot Analysis of "Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers" written by Anirudh Dhebar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Marketers Perils facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Product development, Strategy and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing energy prices,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Marketers Perils, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Marketers Perils
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 Marketers Perils
Strengths Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Marketers Perils in Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Marketers Perils has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Marketers Perils 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.
Analytics focus
– Marketers Perils 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 Anirudh Dhebar can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Marketers Perils is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 brand equity
– Marketers Perils has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Marketers Perils to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Marketers Perils in the sector have low bargaining power. Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Marketers Perils to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Marketers Perils
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Marketers Perils does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Marketers Perils 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.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Marketers Perils digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Marketers Perils 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.
Learning organization
- Marketers Perils 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 Marketers Perils is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Marketers Perils is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Marketers Perils needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, is just above the industry average. Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, in the dynamic environment Marketers Perils has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Marketers Perils has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Marketers Perils 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Marketers Perils is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, it seems that the employees of Marketers Perils 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, 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.
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 Marketers Perils supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Marketers Perils vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Marketers Perils 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. Marketers Perils 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Marketers Perils is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Marketers Perils 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers | 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Marketers Perils 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 Marketers Perils to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Marketers Perils 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Marketers Perils to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Marketers Perils can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Marketers Perils has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Marketers Perils to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers case study. Marketers Perils can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Marketers Perils 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. Marketers Perils 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Marketers Perils 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Marketers Perils 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Marketers Perils to increase its market reach. Marketers Perils 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.
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 Marketers Perils in the consumer business. Now Marketers Perils can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Marketers Perils 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, Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Marketers Perils can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Marketers Perils operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
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 Marketers Perils 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.
Threats Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers are -
Increasing wage structure of Marketers Perils
– 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 Marketers Perils.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Marketers Perils 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
– Marketers Perils 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.
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 Marketers Perils in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Marketers Perils 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers, Marketers Perils 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Marketers Perils 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers .
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 Marketers Perils business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Marketers Perils has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Marketers Perils 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.
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 Marketers Perils.
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. Marketers Perils can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Marketers Perils can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Bringing New High-Technology Products to Market: Six Perils Awaiting Marketers 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 Marketers Perils needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
