Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community
Visualfy is a start-up introducing technology (software and hardware) to help people in the deaf community solve some basic problems in their homes: for example, knowing whether someone is ringing the doorbell, whether the baby is crying or the fire alarm is going off. This case presents the reader with the start-up's situation just a few months before launch. The two founding partners have to make key decisions to ensure the launch's success: What should the device's retail price be? What commercialization channels should they prioritize? How and through what media should they communicate the advantages of their system? And so forth.
Swot Analysis of "Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community" written by Inigo Gallo Martinez, Jose A. Segarra includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Visualfy Deaf facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Strategic planning and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Visualfy Deaf, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Visualfy Deaf
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Visualfy Deaf
Strengths Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Visualfy Deaf in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Visualfy Deaf is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Visualfy Deaf has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Visualfy Deaf to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Visualfy Deaf to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Visualfy Deaf to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Visualfy Deaf in the sector have low bargaining power. Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Visualfy Deaf to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy Deaf 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Visualfy Deaf is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Visualfy Deaf is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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.
Training and development
– Visualfy Deaf has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Visualfy Deaf 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.
Organizational Resilience of Visualfy Deaf
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Visualfy Deaf does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Visualfy Deaf has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy Deaf 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 - Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community, is just above the industry average. Visualfy Deaf 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Visualfy Deaf has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Visualfy Deaf even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy Deaf 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Visualfy Deaf 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy Deaf products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Visualfy Deaf needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Visualfy Deaf is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Visualfy Deaf, firm in the HBR case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community | 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community are -
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. Visualfy Deaf can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Visualfy Deaf to increase its market reach. Visualfy Deaf 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Visualfy Deaf can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Visualfy Deaf 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
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 Visualfy Deaf in the consumer business. Now Visualfy Deaf can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Visualfy Deaf can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Visualfy Deaf 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.
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 Visualfy Deaf 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Visualfy Deaf has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Visualfy Deaf to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community case study. Visualfy Deaf can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Visualfy Deaf 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Visualfy Deaf 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 Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Visualfy Deaf can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Visualfy Deaf 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. Visualfy Deaf 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.
Threats Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community, Visualfy Deaf may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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. Visualfy Deaf needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing 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. Visualfy Deaf 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Visualfy Deaf 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.
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 Visualfy Deaf in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Visualfy Deaf is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Visualfy Deaf 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Visualfy Deaf 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Visualfy Deaf 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Visualfy Deaf 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community .
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 Visualfy Deaf.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Visualfy Deaf has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Visualfy Deaf needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy: Improving the Quality of Life of an Invisible Community 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 Visualfy Deaf needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.