Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?
Wearables, self-driving cars, AI displacing people who will spend less time working and more time searching for memorable experiences to share on social media. These trends are already triggering a seismic shift in consumer patterns toward a constantly connected and engaged omnichannel model. From his research on retail sector trends and the challenges posed by digitization, the author offers a series of tips so that brands and businesses can adapt to the consumer of the future. As the success of firms like Zara, Mango, Uniqlo, Apple and Amazon show, the keys to survival in this new age are unforgettable customer experiences and efficiency.
Swot Analysis of "Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?" written by Guillermo D'Andrea includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Omnichannel Age facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Omnichannel Age, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Omnichannel Age
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 Omnichannel Age
Strengths Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Omnichannel Age in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? - 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
– Omnichannel Age is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Omnichannel Age 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Omnichannel Age in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Omnichannel Age 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 Guillermo D'Andrea 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.
Learning organization
- Omnichannel Age 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 Omnichannel Age is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Omnichannel Age is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Omnichannel Age is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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
– Omnichannel Age has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 brand equity
– Omnichannel Age has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Omnichannel Age to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Omnichannel Age is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Omnichannel Age 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 Omnichannel Age in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Omnichannel Age 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Omnichannel Age, firm in the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Omnichannel Age 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Omnichannel Age has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, it seems that the employees of Omnichannel Age don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? HBR case study mentions - Omnichannel Age 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Guillermo D'Andrea suggests that, Omnichannel Age 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Omnichannel Age 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Omnichannel Age has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, in the dynamic environment Omnichannel Age has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Opportunities Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Omnichannel Age 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Omnichannel Age to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Omnichannel Age can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Omnichannel Age is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Omnichannel Age 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, Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Omnichannel Age in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Omnichannel Age can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Omnichannel Age 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. Omnichannel Age 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
– Omnichannel Age can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Omnichannel Age to increase its market reach. Omnichannel Age 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Omnichannel Age 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.
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 Omnichannel Age 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 Omnichannel Age has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Omnichannel Age to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study. Omnichannel Age can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
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 Omnichannel Age business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Omnichannel Age 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.
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 Omnichannel Age in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Omnichannel Age can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Omnichannel Age 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. Omnichannel Age can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Omnichannel Age needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Omnichannel Age 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Omnichannel Age has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Omnichannel Age 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Omnichannel Age 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.
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. Omnichannel Age 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? .
Increasing wage structure of Omnichannel Age
– 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 Omnichannel Age.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Omnichannel Age needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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