The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet
Pirates on the virtual sea are supplying their illicit digital content and goods through cyberlockers and darknet markets. The deep web hosts darknet marketplaces selling a variety of wares, such as narcotics and weapons, and is testimony to the growth of illicit trade on the internet. The challenge of web sites that host digital content piracy is exacerbated through linkages to a variety of malware schemes that have created a lucrative crimeware economy. Digital thieves target unsuspecting consumers as digital bait to derive profits from a variety of malware schemes such as ransomware and malvertising. The hijacking of access to computers and their digital content in order to ransom them back to consumers or organizations is considered to be one of the leading threats of internet crime. Malvertising schemes are plaguing the internet advertising business-criminals are reaping profits by posting legitimate advertisements at content theft sites or using an army of botnets to fake advertising traffic. A variety of stratagems are evolving to curb this illicit trade, including fostering multi-lateral enforcement tactics, updating legislation to circumvent this type of crime on the internet, training digital savvy citizens, and creating private-sector remedies.
Swot Analysis of "The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet" written by Peggy E. Chaudhry includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Illicit Digital facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Business law, Internet, IT and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Illicit Digital, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Illicit 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.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Illicit 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 Illicit Digital
Strengths The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Illicit Digital in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Illicit 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 The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Illicit Digital is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Illicit Digital is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Illicit Digital digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Illicit Digital 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Illicit 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Illicit Digital has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Illicit 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
– Illicit Digital is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Illicit Digital in the sector have low bargaining power. The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Illicit Digital to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Illicit 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 Illicit Digital is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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.
Training and development
– Illicit Digital has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Illicit 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.
Weaknesses The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Illicit Digital products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Illicit Digital needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Illicit Digital is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Illicit Digital is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Illicit Digital needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Illicit Digital to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet, in the dynamic environment Illicit Digital has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Illicit Digital has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Peggy E. Chaudhry suggests that, Illicit Digital is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Illicit Digital 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Illicit Digital 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. Illicit Digital 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Illicit Digital 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Illicit 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Illicit 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet HBR case study mentions - Illicit 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.
Opportunities The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet | 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Illicit 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.
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. Illicit Digital can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Illicit Digital can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Illicit Digital to increase its market reach. Illicit Digital 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.
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 Illicit 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.
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. Illicit Digital can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Illicit 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Illicit Digital has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Illicit Digital to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet case study. Illicit Digital 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, Illicit Digital 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Illicit Digital can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Illicit Digital can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Illicit Digital operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Illicit Digital 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Illicit 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.
Threats The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet are -
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 Illicit Digital business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Illicit 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 Illicit Digital.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Illicit Digital is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Illicit Digital in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Illicit Digital can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet, Illicit 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Illicit 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.
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.
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. Illicit Digital needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Illicit 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 The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Illicit Digital 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Illicit Digital has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Illicit 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Looming Shadow of Illicit Trade on the Internet 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 Illicit Digital needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
