What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth
In mid-2015, the founders of what3words, a technology start-up in London, England, were eager to position their company for growth. After having financed their two-year entrepreneurial journey with the help of angel investors, they were preparing to meet with a strategic investor to finance the next level of growth. The strategic investor needed to know that the founders had a clear path to profitability and a strategy for continued growth in order to secure long-term business potential. How could the founders create an action plan to move the start-up from surviving to thriving?
Authors :: J. Robert Mitchell, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar
Swot Analysis of "What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth" written by J. Robert Mitchell, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that What3words Founders facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the What3words Founders, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which What3words Founders 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 What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of What3words Founders
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of What3words Founders
Strengths What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of What3words Founders in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– What3words Founders has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. What3words Founders 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.
Analytics focus
– What3words Founders 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 J. Robert Mitchell, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– What3words Founders is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth 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
– What3words Founders has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled What3words Founders to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For What3words Founders digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. What3words Founders has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Innovation driven organization
– What3words Founders is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– What3words Founders has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the What3words Founders 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– What3words Founders is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled What3words Founders to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped What3words Founders to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– What3words Founders 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 What3words Founders 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)
– What3words Founders 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 What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth are -
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 What3words Founders supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left What3words Founders vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of What3words Founders products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, What3words Founders needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
What3words Founders 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth, is just above the industry average. What3words Founders 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, J. Robert Mitchell, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar suggests that, What3words Founders 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of What3words Founders is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. What3words Founders needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help What3words Founders to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as What3words Founders is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– What3words Founders 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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 What3words Founders, firm in the HBR case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth, in the dynamic environment What3words Founders has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. What3words Founders has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth are -
Manufacturing automation
– What3words Founders can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. What3words Founders can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for What3words Founders in the consumer business. Now What3words Founders can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, What3words Founders 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, What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. What3words Founders 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. What3words Founders 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, What3words Founders can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that What3words Founders operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, What3words Founders is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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. What3words Founders can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– What3words Founders can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at What3words Founders 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 Global Business segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of What3words Founders has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help What3words Founders to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth case study. What3words Founders can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for What3words Founders in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– What3words Founders 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.
Threats What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents What3words Founders 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
– What3words Founders 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for What3words Founders in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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, What3words Founders 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 What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– What3words Founders 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.
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 What3words Founders business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. What3words Founders needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business 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. What3words Founders 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– What3words Founders has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, What3words Founders needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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 What3words Founders in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of What3words Founders
– 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 What3words Founders.
Regulatory challenges
– What3words Founders 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of What3words: Positioning the Company for Growth is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that What3words Founders needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
