Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company

This set of Humor: Serious Business "Caselet Studies" follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of humor in the business world. Sara Blakely (in Using Humor to Launch a Company) explores how humor drove her revolutionary startup SPANX from a one-person startup to global phenomenon. Brian Fugere (in Bigger Than Bullsh*t) analyzes how humor helped infuse humanity back to the consulting world. Eric Gurian (in Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times) discusses how humor engaged a community in a serious issue and moved people to action.

Authors :: Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Sara Blakely

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Strategy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company" written by Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Sara Blakely includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Humor Blakely facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Humor Blakely, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Humor Blakely 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Humor Blakely
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Humor Blakely

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Strengths Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Humor Blakely in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company Harvard Business Review case study are -

Learning organization

- Humor Blakely is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Humor Blakely is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Humor Blakely 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Humor Blakely has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Organizational Resilience of Humor Blakely

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Humor Blakely does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

High brand equity

– Humor Blakely has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Humor Blakely to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Diverse revenue streams

– Humor Blakely is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company 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.

Analytics focus

– Humor Blakely is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Sara Blakely 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Humor Blakely is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Humor Blakely in the sector have low bargaining power. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Humor Blakely to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Innovation driven organization

– Humor Blakely is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field

– Humor Blakely is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Humor Blakely in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

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Weaknesses Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company are -

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Humor Blakely 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. Humor Blakely 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Humor Blakely 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Humor Blakely is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Humor Blakely 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Humor Blakely 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert, Sara Blakely suggests that, Humor Blakely 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Humor Blakely products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Humor Blakely needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Humor Blakely 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Humor Blakely 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Humor Blakely is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Humor Blakely needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Humor Blakely to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

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Opportunities Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company are -

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Humor Blakely 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Humor Blakely to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Humor Blakely 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, Humor Blakely can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Humor Blakely operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Humor Blakely 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.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Humor Blakely can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Humor Blakely 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Humor Blakely to increase its market reach. Humor Blakely 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Humor Blakely to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Humor Blakely to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Humor Blakely 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Humor Blakely is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Humor Blakely can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Humor Blakely can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Humor Blakely has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Humor Blakely to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company case study. Humor Blakely can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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Threats Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company are -

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. Humor Blakely needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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 Humor Blakely in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Humor Blakely 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.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Humor Blakely 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Humor Blakely 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Humor Blakely 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company .

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Humor Blakely is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Humor Blakely.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Humor Blakely with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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 Humor Blakely business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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.

Environmental challenges

– Humor Blakely needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Humor Blakely can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Humor Blakely needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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