The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data
The Weather Company (TWC) was innovating by leveraging its big data on weather to create new consumer products. Weather was the original big data problem and over the years, TWC has capitalized on this data with its engaging TV coverage on The Weather Channel, as well as its popular website and mobile app. Recently, looking for new uses for its weather data, the company decided to build weather-related apps targeting outdoor enthusiasts. To crowd-source ideas for these apps, TWC invited all employees to a company-wide "hackathon" where they were asked to create a mobile app prototype for a segment of this population. At the end of the three-day event, everyone demonstrated their prototypes and the company executives decided to pursue OutSider, a mobile app for runners. Like most media sites, TWC employed an advertising-based revenue model. While TWC had millions of TV viewers and website visitors, it had limited information about them. However, with the profile information offered up by runners when they registered to use the OutSider app, as well as the data gathered by the smartphone sensors, TWC was poised to charge a premium for the vendor advertisements placed within the app. As well as illustrating the significance of leveraging data assets to create new products and services, the case also provides an example of the intersection of mobile and big data. When asked to name an innovative company, TWC would most likely not be top-of-mind for most individuals, yet the 30-year-old company was very entrepreneurial in its approach to consumer mobile app development. In addition to outlining TWC's ideation process, the case describes the composition of the mobile app development team, the implementation of agile software development methods, and its use of modern big data technologies. Finally, the case reviews the OutSider app's features and describes its competition. Readers are asked to contemplate how TWC can best leverage its weather data to increase its revenue going forward.
Authors :: Ruth Gilleran, Patricia J. Guinan, Salvatore Parise
Swot Analysis of "The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data" written by Ruth Gilleran, Patricia J. Guinan, Salvatore Parise includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Twc Weather facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Twc Weather, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Twc Weather 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Twc Weather
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 Twc Weather
Strengths The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Twc Weather in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Twc Weather has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Twc Weather to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Twc Weather 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 Twc Weather in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Twc Weather is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Twc Weather has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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.
Analytics focus
– Twc Weather 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 Ruth Gilleran, Patricia J. Guinan, Salvatore Parise can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Twc Weather 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Twc Weather is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Twc Weather has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Twc Weather 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 Twc Weather 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 Twc Weather in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Twc Weather 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Twc Weather 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Twc Weather 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 Twc Weather 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Twc Weather is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Twc Weather needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Twc Weather to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Twc Weather is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data, is just above the industry average. Twc Weather 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data, it seems that the employees of Twc Weather 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 Twc Weather has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Twc Weather supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Twc Weather vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Twc Weather 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 - The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Twc Weather 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.
Opportunities The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data | 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data are -
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. Twc Weather can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Twc Weather 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Twc Weather 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, The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Twc Weather is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Twc Weather has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Twc Weather to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data case study. Twc Weather can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Twc Weather 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Twc Weather to increase its market reach. Twc Weather 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.
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. Twc Weather 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. Twc Weather 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Twc Weather 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Twc Weather 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Twc Weather can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Twc Weather operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Twc Weather can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Twc Weather 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 Twc Weather to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data are -
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. Twc Weather can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Twc Weather.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data, Twc Weather 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Twc Weather has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Twc Weather 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 Twc Weather with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Twc Weather 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.
Environmental challenges
– Twc Weather 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. Twc Weather can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Twc Weather is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Twc Weather needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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 Twc Weather in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Twc Weather business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that Leverage its Big Data 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 Twc Weather needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.