Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context
In 2015, the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), the largest business incubator in Denmark, was admitting 100-125 new start-ups each year and attracting external funding of US$33 million from both public and private sources-all with an annual budget of US$435,000, funded exclusively by the Copenhagen Business School. Like most business incubators, CSE worked to provide entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, and investors, and to enhance their visibility in the market. It required all admitted start-ups to participate in a screening/selection tool and a set of incubation activities over three specific stages. The school measured success in terms of the number of incubator participants who had both a business customer and a sustainable business model at the end of a nine-month incubation period. In 2015, CSE's success rate was 53 per cent. At this point, CSE's leaders recognized a need to question how they measured the benefits of the program. How should the 53 per cent success rate be compared to the Copenhagen Business School's investment? What changes could the CSE leadership make to create more value for Danish society?
Authors :: Robert D. Austin, Dana Minbaeva, Demetra Dimokopoulos
Swot Analysis of "Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context" written by Robert D. Austin, Dana Minbaeva, Demetra Dimokopoulos includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Copenhagen Cse facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Copenhagen Cse, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Copenhagen Cse
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Copenhagen Cse
Strengths Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Copenhagen Cse in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Copenhagen Cse has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Copenhagen Cse to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Copenhagen Cse in the sector have low bargaining power. Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Copenhagen Cse to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Copenhagen Cse is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Copenhagen Cse has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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
- Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen Cse is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Copenhagen Cse in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen Cse in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Copenhagen Cse has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Copenhagen Cse 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
– Copenhagen Cse is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Copenhagen Cse is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Copenhagen Cse is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Robert D. Austin, Dana Minbaeva, Demetra Dimokopoulos can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Weaknesses Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context, in the dynamic environment Copenhagen Cse has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Copenhagen Cse has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context HBR case study mentions - Copenhagen Cse 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context, is just above the industry average. Copenhagen Cse 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Copenhagen Cse is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen Cse 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Copenhagen Cse 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 - Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Copenhagen Cse 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. Copenhagen Cse 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Copenhagen Cse 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert D. Austin, Dana Minbaeva, Demetra Dimokopoulos suggests that, Copenhagen Cse 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen Cse has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context | 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Copenhagen Cse 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Copenhagen Cse can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Copenhagen Cse can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Copenhagen Cse has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Copenhagen Cse to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context case study. Copenhagen Cse 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, Copenhagen Cse 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.
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 Copenhagen Cse 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Copenhagen Cse in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Copenhagen Cse can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Copenhagen Cse 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, Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen Cse in the consumer business. Now Copenhagen Cse can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Copenhagen Cse 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Copenhagen Cse 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.
Threats Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context are -
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 Copenhagen Cse in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Copenhagen Cse 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Copenhagen Cse 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context .
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Copenhagen Cse 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Copenhagen Cse with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Copenhagen Cse is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Copenhagen Cse needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Copenhagen Cse 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 wage structure of Copenhagen Cse
– 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 Copenhagen Cse.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context, Copenhagen Cse may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Copenhagen Cse in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Environmental challenges
– Copenhagen Cse 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. Copenhagen Cse can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship: Business Incubation in the Danish Context 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 Copenhagen Cse needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
