The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?
Are you ready for what's coming? As senior managers look to connect products, processes, and services to the growing field of the Internet of Things (IoT), this is an important preliminary question. Leveraging the IoT for firm benefit involves revisiting certain ideas that may have gone unquestioned for a long time. In this article, we begin by reviewing the complexity of the IoT, the complexities of an increasingly interconnected environment, and the increasing need to develop partnerships in order to create innovative solutions. We then offer practical insights from a case in which three actors with reciprocal specialties cooperated to create an IoT solution in the form of a connected appliance. While a shared spirit of optimism prevailed throughout the endeavor, reaching the finish line meant jumping a few hurdles along the way. Finally, we describe a number of fundamental issues related to business models, partnership strategy, data ownership, and technology diffusion that every enterprise should address before diving headfirst into the Internet of Things.
Authors :: Ted Saarikko, Ulrika H. Westergren, Tomas Blomquist
Swot Analysis of "The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?" written by Ted Saarikko, Ulrika H. Westergren, Tomas Blomquist includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Iot Cooperated facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, IT, Product development and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Iot Cooperated, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Iot Cooperated operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Iot Cooperated
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 Iot Cooperated
Strengths The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Iot Cooperated in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Iot Cooperated has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Iot Cooperated 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.
Training and development
– Iot Cooperated has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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
- Iot Cooperated 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 Iot Cooperated is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Iot Cooperated is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Iot Cooperated
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Iot Cooperated does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Iot Cooperated 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Iot Cooperated is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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 Iot Cooperated in the sector have low bargaining power. The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Iot Cooperated to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Iot Cooperated is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Iot Cooperated to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Iot Cooperated to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Iot Cooperated 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 The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, it seems that the employees of Iot Cooperated 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Iot Cooperated products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Iot Cooperated needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Iot Cooperated 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 The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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 The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Iot Cooperated is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Iot Cooperated 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 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 Iot Cooperated supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Iot Cooperated vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Iot Cooperated has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ted Saarikko, Ulrika H. Westergren, Tomas Blomquist suggests that, Iot Cooperated 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, in the dynamic environment Iot Cooperated has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Iot Cooperated 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, Iot Cooperated 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.
Opportunities The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Iot Cooperated in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Iot Cooperated can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
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. Iot Cooperated can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Iot Cooperated can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Iot Cooperated can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Iot Cooperated 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.
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 Iot Cooperated in the consumer business. Now Iot Cooperated can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Iot Cooperated is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Iot Cooperated can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Iot Cooperated to increase its market reach. Iot Cooperated 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Iot Cooperated 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 Iot Cooperated to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Iot Cooperated 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Iot Cooperated 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.
Threats The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Iot Cooperated has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Iot Cooperated needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Iot Cooperated 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.
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. Iot Cooperated needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Iot Cooperated is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Iot Cooperated can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? .
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming?, Iot Cooperated may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
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 Iot Cooperated business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Iot Cooperated 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. Iot Cooperated can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Iot Cooperated
– 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 Iot Cooperated.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Iot Cooperated with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Iot Cooperated 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Internet of Things: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 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 Iot Cooperated needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
