Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website
In August 2016, the director of UdaipurTimes.com, a hyperlocal news website, and his partner were faced with a problem. Their start-up venture had thus far grown without any explicit strategy. Despite a steady readership of nearly 200,000, achieving further revenue growth and sustained profitability were ongoing issues. UdaipurTimes.com needed to come up with a comprehensive strategy by evaluating various alternatives (such as creating a mobile app and soliciting user-generated content) to increase the frequency of customer visits and attract new readers to the website. Given its limited financial strength and its focus on speedily growing its customer base while leveraging current resources and capabilities, what strategy should UdaipurTimes.com choose? The authors Atul Arun Pathak and ShabbirHusain R.V. are affiliated with XLRI-Xavier School of Management.
Swot Analysis of "Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website" written by Atul Arun Pathak, ShabbirHusain RV includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal
Strengths Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in the sector have low bargaining power. Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Learning organization
- Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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.
Weaknesses Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website, it seems that the employees of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website, is just above the industry average. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website HBR case study mentions - Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 - Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Atul Arun Pathak, ShabbirHusain RV suggests that, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Opportunities Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website | 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in the consumer business. Now Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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, Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Threats Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website are -
Increasing wage structure of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal
– 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People 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. Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipur Times: Strategy of a Hyperlocal News Website 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 Udaipurtimes.com Hyperlocal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
