Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times
This set of Humor: Serious Business "Caselet Studies" follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of humor in the business world. Sara Blakely (in Using Humor to Launch a Company) explores how humor drove her revolutionary startup SPANX from a one-person startup to global phenomenon. Brian Fugere (in Bigger Than Bullsh*t) analyzes how humor helped infuse humanity back to the consulting world. Eric Gurian (in Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times) discusses how humor engaged a community in a serious issue and moved people to action.
Authors :: Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Eric Gurian
Swot Analysis of "Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times" written by Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Eric Gurian includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Humor Gurian facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Humor Gurian, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Humor Gurian 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Humor Gurian
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Humor Gurian
Strengths Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Humor Gurian in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Humor Gurian 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Humor Gurian 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 Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Eric Gurian 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.
Training and development
– Humor Gurian has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Humor Gurian to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Humor Gurian to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Humor Gurian 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Humor Gurian in the sector have low bargaining power. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Humor Gurian to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Humor Gurian 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 Humor Gurian in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Humor Gurian 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 Humor Gurian is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Humor Gurian 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Humor Gurian is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Humor Gurian is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Humor Gurian is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Eric Gurian suggests that, Humor Gurian is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Humor Gurian supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Humor Gurian vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Humor Gurian is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Humor Gurian needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Humor Gurian to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times, in the dynamic environment Humor Gurian has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Humor Gurian 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Humor Gurian 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor Gurian has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Humor Gurian is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Humor Gurian 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Humor Gurian products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Humor Gurian needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times | 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Humor Gurian 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 Humor Gurian to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Humor Gurian 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. Humor Gurian 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Humor Gurian can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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.
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. Humor Gurian can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Humor Gurian can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Humor Gurian 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Humor Gurian can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Humor Gurian to increase its market reach. Humor Gurian 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Humor Gurian 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Humor Gurian 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Humor Gurian is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Humor Gurian 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Humor Gurian in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times are -
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.
Environmental challenges
– Humor Gurian 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. Humor Gurian can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Humor Gurian can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Humor Gurian 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Humor Gurian can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Humor Gurian
– 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 Humor Gurian.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Humor Gurian with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Humor Gurian has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Humor Gurian needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Humor Gurian in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times, Humor Gurian may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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 Humor Gurian.
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. Humor Gurian 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times 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 Humor Gurian needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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