Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together
Analyzes the decisions of Niall Carroll, an Irish banker, to start a venture capital fund focused on Ireland. The context of the Irish markets and the nature of Irish opportunities are explored.
Swot Analysis of "Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together" written by Paul A. Gompers, Catherine Conneely includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Irish Ireland facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Venture capital and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Irish Ireland, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Irish Ireland 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Irish Ireland
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Irish Ireland
Strengths Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Irish Ireland in Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Irish Ireland 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Irish Ireland has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Irish Ireland to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Irish Ireland is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Irish Ireland in the sector have low bargaining power. Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Irish Ireland to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Irish Ireland is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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
– Irish Ireland has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Irish Ireland 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Irish Ireland digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Irish Ireland 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 Irish Ireland 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Irish Ireland 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Irish Ireland is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Irish Ireland 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 lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Irish Ireland 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 Irish Ireland in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Paul A. Gompers, Catherine Conneely suggests that, Irish Ireland 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Irish Ireland has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Irish Ireland is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together, is just above the industry average. Irish Ireland 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Irish Ireland has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Irish Ireland 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 - Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Irish Ireland 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.
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 Irish Ireland supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Irish Ireland vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together HBR case study mentions - Irish Ireland 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Irish Ireland is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Irish Ireland needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Irish Ireland to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Opportunities Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together | 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Irish Ireland 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Irish Ireland to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Irish Ireland 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Irish Ireland can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Irish Ireland operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Irish Ireland can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Irish Ireland to increase its market reach. Irish Ireland 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 Irish Ireland 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Irish Ireland 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Irish Ireland 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Irish Ireland in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Irish Ireland is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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.
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 Irish Ireland in the consumer business. Now Irish Ireland can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Irish Ireland has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Irish Ireland to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together case study. Irish Ireland can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Irish Ireland can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together are -
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. Irish Ireland 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Irish Ireland high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Irish Ireland 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 Irish Ireland is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Irish Ireland 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. Irish Ireland can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Irish Ireland with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Irish Ireland
– 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 Irish Ireland.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Irish Ireland 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together .
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.
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 Irish Ireland business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Irish Ireland 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Irish Ireland in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Irish Ireland in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together 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 Irish Ireland needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
