LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap
In 2016, LinkedIn was the largest online platform connecting people to job opportunities and training. The company's goal was to innovate and co-create with stakeholders a stable, yet emergent online platform that could serve a global business community undergoing rapid transformation in technology, job requirements, and the structure of work itself. LinkedIn had a leadership role in this transformation; the company vision, market penetration, and expertise promised to help address major problems of global unemployment and underemployment. The company's Economic Graph, a massive data set of employment information, was part of the response, but LinkedIn had some challenges to address. How could LinkedIn co-create with stakeholders a stable, increasingly scaled online platform that could serve a global business community, while the structures of those stakeholders inhibited interconnectivity, the skill sets for workers were evolving, and the requirements for and nature of work itself was going through rapid, uncertain transformation? How could it expand to include less educated adults and connect people in regions with different business cultures, values, and practices? How could it better coordinate open-source information among stakeholders? How could it define "soft skills" and connect people with good soft skills with hiring managers? Jeff Saperstein is affiliated with San Francisco State University.
Swot Analysis of "LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap" written by Jeff Saperstein, Mariela Gonzalez includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Linkedin Stakeholders facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Linkedin Stakeholders, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Linkedin Stakeholders 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Linkedin Stakeholders
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 Linkedin Stakeholders
Strengths LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Linkedin Stakeholders in LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Linkedin Stakeholders
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Linkedin Stakeholders does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Linkedin Stakeholders has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Linkedin Stakeholders is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Linkedin Stakeholders in the sector have low bargaining power. LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Linkedin Stakeholders to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Linkedin Stakeholders in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Linkedin Stakeholders to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Linkedin Stakeholders to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Linkedin Stakeholders 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Linkedin Stakeholders has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Linkedin Stakeholders digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Analytics focus
– Linkedin Stakeholders 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 Jeff Saperstein, Mariela Gonzalez 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap, is just above the industry average. Linkedin Stakeholders 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jeff Saperstein, Mariela Gonzalez suggests that, Linkedin Stakeholders is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Linkedin Stakeholders supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Linkedin Stakeholders vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Linkedin Stakeholders products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Linkedin Stakeholders needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Linkedin Stakeholders, firm in the HBR case study LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap, it seems that the employees of Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Linkedin Stakeholders is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Linkedin Stakeholders needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Linkedin Stakeholders to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Linkedin Stakeholders needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 Linkedin Stakeholders has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Linkedin Stakeholders 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. Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Opportunities LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap | 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Linkedin Stakeholders 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. Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
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. Linkedin Stakeholders can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Linkedin Stakeholders can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Linkedin Stakeholders can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Linkedin Stakeholders is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Linkedin Stakeholders 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 Linkedin Stakeholders has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Linkedin Stakeholders to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap case study. Linkedin Stakeholders can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Linkedin Stakeholders can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Linkedin Stakeholders operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Linkedin Stakeholders to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Linkedin Stakeholders 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Linkedin Stakeholders to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Linkedin Stakeholders can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Linkedin Stakeholders 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap .
Regulatory challenges
– Linkedin Stakeholders needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
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 Linkedin Stakeholders in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Linkedin Stakeholders can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
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 Linkedin Stakeholders
– 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 Linkedin Stakeholders.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Linkedin Stakeholders is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap, Linkedin Stakeholders 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 Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Linkedin Stakeholders 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.
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. Linkedin Stakeholders needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 LinkedIn: Bridging the Global Employment Gap 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 Linkedin Stakeholders needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.