Case Study Description of Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas
In December 2015, the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Technology Uncorked LLP (TU) was facing decisions about the company's future. TU was a four-year-old start-up that was set up as an ideation engine that would use crowdsourcing to generate ideas and then fast-track the development of the best of them. Faced with a previous choice between early success of a technology project in a single-product domain and remaining consistent to TU's founding vision, the CEO had chosen to maintain the company's original direction. This led to the early exit of one of her two partners. TU's technology workshops had found a market, and TU was in a comfortable position financially. Should the CEO focus her resources on the workshops and scale up to become a technology training company, or should she move the business model online and shift resources to the back end of the business model, becoming more of an innovation platform? To move online, she might have to consider external funding sources, perhaps from a private equity investor. This would mean diluting the founders' equity and losing some control over TU's future direction. Alternatively, she could continue growing slowly but organically, and retain control. The authors Madhushree Agarwal and Jaydeep Mukherjee are affiliated with Management Development Institute.
Swot Analysis of "Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas" written by Madhushree Agarwal, Jaydeep Mukherjee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tu's Tu facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Talent management, Venture capital and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tu's Tu, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tu's Tu 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tu's Tu
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tu's Tu
Strengths Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tu's Tu in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Tu's Tu 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 Madhushree Agarwal, Jaydeep Mukherjee 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.
Organizational Resilience of Tu's Tu
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tu's Tu does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Tu's Tu has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Tu's Tu is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Tu's Tu 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 Tu's Tu is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tu's Tu is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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.
High brand equity
– Tu's Tu has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tu's Tu to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Tu's Tu is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tu's Tu 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Tu's Tu 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 Tu's Tu 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.
Weaknesses Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, it seems that the employees of Tu's Tu 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, is just above the industry average. Tu's Tu 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, in the dynamic environment Tu's Tu has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tu's Tu has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas HBR case study mentions - Tu's Tu 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tu's Tu 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Madhushree Agarwal, Jaydeep Mukherjee suggests that, Tu's Tu 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Tu's Tu has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Tu's Tu supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tu's Tu vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Tu's Tu is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Tu's Tu needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Tu's Tu to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Tu's Tu 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.
Opportunities Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas | 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tu's Tu 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 Tu's Tu 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tu's Tu in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting 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, Tu's Tu 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, Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Tu's Tu can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tu's Tu 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. Tu's Tu 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tu's Tu 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 Tu's Tu to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tu's Tu 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tu's Tu to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tu's Tu can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tu's Tu 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
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. Tu's Tu can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tu's Tu can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tu's Tu can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas are -
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. Tu's Tu needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting 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. Tu's Tu 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tu's Tu in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tu's Tu 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tu's Tu is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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 Tu's Tu in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tu's Tu 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Tu's Tu 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
– Tu's Tu 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tu's Tu 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.
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 Tu's Tu business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Tu's Tu 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Technology Uncorked: Crowdsourcing for Ideas 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 Tu's Tu needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.