Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!
Rarely does a day seem to go by without another front page story about a firm being breached by cyber-attackers. Even experts in the field are far from immune from the unsustainable status quo. For example, Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has said: "We have a faith-based approach [to cybersecurity], in that we pray every night nothing bad will happen." This is a difficult starting point to consider an appropriate end game. Still, it is something that firms must do since infinite investment cannot breed infinite security. This article takes lessons from the burgeoning field of cyber peace studies and applies them to private sector cyber risk mitigation strategies. With members of the C-Suite on down to mailroom clerks worrying about the next attack and looking over their shoulder after a breach occurs, who wouldn't welcome some peace of mind?
Swot Analysis of "Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!" written by Scott J Shackelford includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cyber Peace facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions, Security & privacy and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cyber Peace, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cyber Peace 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cyber Peace
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 Cyber Peace
Strengths Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cyber Peace in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cyber Peace 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cyber Peace is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cyber Peace 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Cyber Peace is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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
– Cyber Peace has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 brand equity
– Cyber Peace has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cyber Peace to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cyber Peace 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cyber Peace to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cyber Peace to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cyber Peace 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! - 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 Cyber Peace in the sector have low bargaining power. Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cyber Peace to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cyber Peace is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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.
Weaknesses Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Scott J Shackelford suggests that, Cyber Peace 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 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 Cyber Peace supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cyber Peace vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!, it seems that the employees of Cyber Peace 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!, in the dynamic environment Cyber Peace has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cyber Peace has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cyber Peace 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Cyber Peace has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cyber Peace 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cyber Peace is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! HBR case study mentions - Cyber Peace 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, Cyber Peace 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. Cyber Peace 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cyber Peace 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 - Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! | 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cyber Peace 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cyber Peace can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cyber Peace to increase its market reach. Cyber Peace 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cyber Peace 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cyber Peace is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cyber Peace 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cyber Peace 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, Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You!, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Cyber Peace 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cyber Peace 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
– Cyber Peace 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cyber Peace to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Cyber Peace can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Cyber Peace can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Cyber Peace in the consumer business. Now Cyber Peace can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cyber Peace 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.
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. Cyber Peace can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Cyber Peace in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Cyber Peace 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. Cyber Peace can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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. Cyber Peace 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, Cyber Peace 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cyber Peace 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.
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.
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. Cyber Peace needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Cyber Peace
– 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 Cyber Peace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cyber Peace is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Cyber Peace 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cyber Peace with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Business and Cyber Peace: We Need You! 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 Cyber Peace needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
