RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market
The RoboTech case describes the challenges facing the CEO of a small, Singapore-based industrial robotics company that decides to diversify away from its core industrial robot business by leveraging its expertise into the medical-devices industry. It launches an innovative product (a specialized surgical robot) in an unfamiliar market segment (spinal surgery) and decides to enter the unfamiliar, distant U.S. healthcare market, which is characterized by rapid technological change and intense competition with large, established competitors. RoboTech's initial struggles with maintaining product supply and customer support are also complicated by regulatory pressures and shifting reimbursement rates. The case illustrates the strategic and organizational pressures that result from facing numerous unanticipated pressures in a company that lacks the resources, capabilities, and management experience to deal with them. Although the case was developed for courses in international management/international business, it is also well suited to courses in strategy, technology management, and general management.
Authors :: Christopher A. Bartlett, Rachel Gordon, John Lafkas
Swot Analysis of "RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market" written by Christopher A. Bartlett, Rachel Gordon, John Lafkas includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Robotech Robot facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Cross-cultural management, Marketing, Regulation, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Robotech Robot, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Robotech Robot 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Robotech Robot
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 Robotech Robot
Strengths RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Robotech Robot in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Robotech Robot has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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
– Robotech Robot is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Robotech Robot 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 Robotech Robot is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Robotech Robot 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Robotech Robot is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Robotech Robot in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Robotech Robot 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Robotech Robot 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Robotech Robot is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Robotech Robot in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Robotech Robot 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Robotech Robot has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Robotech Robot has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Diverse revenue streams
– Robotech Robot is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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.
Weaknesses RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Robotech Robot is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market, in the dynamic environment Robotech Robot has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Robotech Robot has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Robotech Robot is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Robotech Robot, firm in the HBR case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Robotech Robot 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Robotech Robot 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. Robotech Robot 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market, it seems that the employees of Robotech Robot 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Robotech Robot 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market HBR case study mentions - Robotech Robot 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Robotech Robot is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Robotech Robot needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Robotech Robot to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market | 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Robotech Robot 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Robotech Robot 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Robotech Robot 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, RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market, 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 Robotech Robot 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
– Robotech Robot 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Robotech Robot 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Robotech Robot has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Robotech Robot to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market case study. Robotech Robot can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Robotech Robot can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Robotech Robot 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 Robotech Robot to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Robotech Robot 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Robotech Robot to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Robotech Robot is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Robotech Robot 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Robotech Robot can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Robotech Robot operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Robotech Robot 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Robotech Robot is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Robotech Robot 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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. Robotech Robot 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Robotech Robot 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Robotech Robot with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Robotech Robot 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market, Robotech Robot may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Environmental challenges
– Robotech Robot 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. Robotech Robot can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Robotech Robot
– 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 Robotech Robot.
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 Robotech Robot.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Robotech Robot in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market 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 Robotech Robot needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
