Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B)
The (A) case focuses on the development of a Smart Village in Mori, Andhra Pradesh (AP), India. The Chief Minister of the state, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has recently completed a series of visits to rural villages in his state of 60 million residents, 35 million of whom live in rural areas. CM Naidu seeks to create a new policy mechanism to address the many unmet needs of his constituents in AP. He decided to launch an experiment called Smart Villages. The case describes the many unmet needs of rural villagers in India, and also discusses some of the approaches that the Chief Minister had tried in an earlier period, before his party lost power. Back in office as Chief Minister, he is now motivated to try something new. In the (B) case, after a successful pilot in Mori, the learnings were extended to 472 Andhra Pradesh villages, commissioned by the Chief Minister Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, India. Over 500 village local ambassadors were trained by UC Berkeley-trained fellow to do house-to-house surveys for data collection and analysis. Various technologies were pivoted in selected villages using open innovation research to develop business models through co-innovation process, with input from with people on ground, startups, large firms, and government. Many lessons were learned through this process for further study to perfect frameworks and scalable business models. Particular attention was given to critical areas for improved health, farming, cottage industries, artisan products and commercial innovation through scalable platforms and global access. Formidable challenges include: logistics, government programs, and geographical and cultural impediments.
Swot Analysis of "Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B)" written by Solomon Darwin, Henry W. Chesbrough includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Naidu Villages facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Entrepreneurship, Government, Growth strategy, Innovation and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Naidu Villages, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Naidu Villages 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Naidu Villages
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 Naidu Villages
Strengths Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Naidu Villages in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Naidu Villages 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Naidu Villages is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Naidu Villages 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 Naidu Villages is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Naidu Villages has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Naidu Villages to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Naidu Villages to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Naidu Villages to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Naidu Villages has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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
– Naidu Villages is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Naidu Villages 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Naidu Villages 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Naidu Villages in the sector have low bargaining power. Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Naidu Villages to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Naidu Villages has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Naidu Villages is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Naidu Villages is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Naidu Villages needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Naidu Villages to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Naidu Villages has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Solomon Darwin, Henry W. Chesbrough suggests that, Naidu Villages 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Naidu Villages has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) HBR case study mentions - Naidu Villages takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High 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 Naidu Villages supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Naidu Villages vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Naidu Villages 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Naidu Villages 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 Naidu Villages 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 - Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B), in the dynamic environment Naidu Villages has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Naidu Villages has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Naidu Villages 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) | 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Naidu Villages is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Naidu Villages 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Naidu Villages can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Naidu Villages operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Naidu Villages 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Naidu Villages to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Naidu Villages can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Naidu Villages 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Naidu Villages has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Naidu Villages to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) case study. Naidu Villages can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Naidu Villages 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Naidu Villages 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, Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Naidu Villages 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Naidu Villages 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 Naidu Villages to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Naidu Villages to increase its market reach. Naidu Villages 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Naidu Villages 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.
Threats Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Naidu Villages 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 Naidu Villages 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Naidu Villages 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
– Naidu Villages 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Naidu Villages is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Naidu Villages needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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. Naidu Villages can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Naidu Villages 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B), Naidu Villages 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Naidu Villages
– 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 Naidu Villages.
Environmental challenges
– Naidu Villages 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. Naidu Villages can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Prototyping a Scalable Smart Village (B) 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 Naidu Villages needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.