K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out
As shown with Psy's hit song, "Gangnam Style," K-Pop (Korean Pop) music has been successful recently, not only in Asia but also in many other countries. K-Pop's current success largely stems from its systematic production system and this new business model has changed the managerial paradigm in the entertainment industry. However, recently, there has been a growing concern that K-Pop may be just a case of short-lived hype, thus it may not have sustained success.
Authors :: Won-Yong Oh, Joohyung Lee, Michelle Jin
Swot Analysis of "K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out" written by Won-Yong Oh, Joohyung Lee, Michelle Jin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pop Fizzling facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, National competitiveness and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pop Fizzling, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pop Fizzling
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pop Fizzling
Strengths K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pop Fizzling in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pop Fizzling in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Pop Fizzling is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pop Fizzling has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pop Fizzling 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pop Fizzling 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.
Training and development
– Pop Fizzling has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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.
Learning organization
- Pop Fizzling 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 Pop Fizzling is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Pop Fizzling
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pop Fizzling does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Pop Fizzling is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pop Fizzling is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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.
High brand equity
– Pop Fizzling has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pop Fizzling to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out are -
Need for greater diversity
– Pop Fizzling 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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 Pop Fizzling supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pop Fizzling vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 Pop Fizzling 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out, it seems that the employees of Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 Pop Fizzling has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pop Fizzling is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pop Fizzling products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pop Fizzling needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pop Fizzling 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 - K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out, in the dynamic environment Pop Fizzling has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pop Fizzling has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pop Fizzling, firm in the HBR case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out | 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out are -
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 Pop Fizzling in the consumer business. Now Pop Fizzling can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pop Fizzling can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Pop Fizzling can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pop Fizzling is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pop Fizzling 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 Global Business segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Pop Fizzling 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pop Fizzling has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pop Fizzling to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out case study. Pop Fizzling can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pop Fizzling to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Pop Fizzling 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. Pop Fizzling 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pop Fizzling can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pop Fizzling operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pop Fizzling 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 Pop Fizzling to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pop Fizzling can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pop Fizzling 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, K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out are -
Increasing wage structure of Pop Fizzling
– 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 Pop Fizzling.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pop Fizzling demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pop Fizzling is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pop Fizzling can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out .
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 Pop Fizzling.
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. Pop Fizzling needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pop Fizzling has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pop Fizzling needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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. Pop Fizzling 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.
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 Pop Fizzling in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pop Fizzling 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 K-Pop: A Global Music Factory Fizzling Out 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 Pop Fizzling needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.