Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy
Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google, has ordered 82,000 self-driving cars for delivery through 2020. Cruise Automation, from General Motors, is perfecting their own fleet. Countless companies are driving full-throttle into the future. This case explores whether self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles or AVs) are a red oean or blue ocean opportunity, and explains the difference between technological innovation and value innovation. It will prompt students to think about disruptive innovation and nondisruptive market creation, and why inventors of major technological innovations throughout history have often failed to meaningfully monetize their inventions.
Authors :: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Guoli Chen, Michael Olenick
Swot Analysis of "Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy" written by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Guoli Chen, Michael Olenick includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Driving Autonomous facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Driving Autonomous, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Driving Autonomous 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Driving Autonomous
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Driving Autonomous
Strengths Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Driving Autonomous in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Driving Autonomous digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Driving Autonomous 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
– Driving Autonomous is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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
– Driving Autonomous is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Driving Autonomous 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 Driving Autonomous in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Driving Autonomous 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Driving Autonomous has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Driving Autonomous has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Driving Autonomous 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
– Driving Autonomous 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 W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Guoli Chen, Michael Olenick 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Driving Autonomous in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Driving Autonomous in the sector have low bargaining power. Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Driving Autonomous to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Driving Autonomous 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy - 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Driving Autonomous, firm in the HBR case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Driving Autonomous 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Driving Autonomous 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy, it seems that the employees of Driving Autonomous 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy, in the dynamic environment Driving Autonomous has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Driving Autonomous has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Driving Autonomous 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Driving Autonomous 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving Autonomous 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving Autonomous has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Driving Autonomous is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy | 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy are -
Buying journey improvements
– Driving Autonomous can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Driving Autonomous has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Driving Autonomous to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy case study. Driving Autonomous can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Driving Autonomous 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, Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Driving Autonomous is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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.
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 Driving Autonomous 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Driving Autonomous to increase its market reach. Driving Autonomous 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Driving Autonomous in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Driving Autonomous 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 Driving Autonomous to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Driving Autonomous can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Driving Autonomous operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Driving Autonomous 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Driving Autonomous 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.
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. Driving Autonomous can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Driving Autonomous 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.
Threats Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy are -
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. Driving Autonomous 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Driving Autonomous with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy, Driving Autonomous may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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 Driving Autonomous.
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.
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 Driving Autonomous in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Driving Autonomous 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Driving Autonomous is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Driving Autonomous 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Driving Autonomous 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. Driving Autonomous can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Driving Autonomous 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Driving Autonomous has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Driving Autonomous needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Driving Autonomous business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving the Future: How Autonomous Vehicles Will Change Industries and Strategy 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 Driving Autonomous needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.