Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth
In late 2015, Apigee, a fast-growing technology firm, faced competitive pressures. It needed to scale up rapidly, which included hiring additional staff. At the regional office in India, some members of the senior leadership team wondered whether the company would need to modify its human resources practices. The firm had been operating in a unique organizational culture that encouraged employees' openness and freedom, in keeping with its core values of passion, a bias for action, and respect. How could Apigee integrate its unique culture with the organization's growth plans? The senior leadership team needed to decide how Apigee could retain its personalized approach, culture of freedom, and high levels of employee empowerment, as the company expanded both in size and scope. Ranjeet Nambudiri is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore. S. Ramnarayan is affiliated with Indian School of Business.
Authors :: Ranjeet Nambudiri, S. Ramnarayan, Catherine Xavier
Swot Analysis of "Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth" written by Ranjeet Nambudiri, S. Ramnarayan, Catherine Xavier includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Apigee Freedom facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Apigee Freedom, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Apigee Freedom
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Apigee Freedom
Strengths Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Apigee Freedom in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Apigee Freedom has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Apigee Freedom is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Apigee Freedom in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Apigee Freedom in the sector have low bargaining power. Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Apigee Freedom to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Apigee Freedom to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Apigee Freedom to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Apigee Freedom 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.
Learning organization
- Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee Freedom is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Apigee Freedom has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Apigee Freedom to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Apigee Freedom 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Apigee Freedom is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Apigee Freedom is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Apigee Freedom is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee Freedom has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Apigee Freedom 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth, is just above the industry average. Apigee Freedom 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Apigee Freedom 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth, it seems that the employees of Apigee Freedom 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Apigee Freedom 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Apigee Freedom 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 - Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Apigee Freedom products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Apigee Freedom needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth | 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Apigee Freedom 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.
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 Apigee Freedom 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Apigee Freedom 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Apigee Freedom 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, Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Apigee Freedom can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Apigee Freedom operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Apigee Freedom can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Apigee Freedom is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee Freedom to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Apigee Freedom can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Apigee Freedom 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Apigee Freedom can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Apigee Freedom 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 Organizational Development segment.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Apigee Freedom to increase its market reach. Apigee Freedom 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.
Threats Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Apigee Freedom 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee Freedom 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Apigee Freedom in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
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 Apigee Freedom.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Apigee Freedom is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Apigee Freedom business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Apigee Freedom 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, Apigee Freedom 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth .
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 Apigee Freedom in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Apigee Freedom has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Apigee Freedom needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Apigee Freedom with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Apigee Freedom needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee: People Management Practices and the Challenge of Growth 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 Apigee Freedom needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.