Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case

In today's turbulent business environment, innovation and organizational renewal are key. Employees are encouraged to act as intrapreneurs (entrepreneurs within their employing unit or organization) and instigate change from the bottom up. However, accomplishing this company wide is highly challenging. In this article, we examine the case of Wehkamp, a Dutch e-tailer that overcame these challenges and succeeded in creating a flourishing climate for intrapreneurship. We describe the three-step chronological process for intensive change wherein the initiatives of some intrapreneurs can produce widely held organizational value for intrapreneurship. Key to this change process are three insights: (1) Team leaders can feed the incremental and radical initiative of the few; (2) top management can give meaning and guard fairness to stimulate overall intrapreneurship; and (3) corporate entrepreneurship can be used to continuously revive widespread intrapreneurship. Organizations seeking to encourage intrapreneurship from their employees can benefit from these guidelines.

Authors :: Jana Deprez, Hannes Leroy, Martin Euwema

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case" written by Jana Deprez, Hannes Leroy, Martin Euwema includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Intrapreneurship Wehkamp facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Intrapreneurship Wehkamp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Intrapreneurship Wehkamp
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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp

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Strengths Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Intrapreneurship Wehkamp in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case Harvard Business Review case study are -

Analytics focus

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Jana Deprez, Hannes Leroy, Martin Euwema 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.

Training and development

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Strong track record of project management

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Learning organization

- Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry

– Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Intrapreneurship Wehkamp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Intrapreneurship Wehkamp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Organizational Resilience of Intrapreneurship Wehkamp

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

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Weaknesses Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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

Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 's lucrative customers.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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. Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 - Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Lack of clear differentiation of Intrapreneurship Wehkamp products

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

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jana Deprez, Hannes Leroy, Martin Euwema suggests that, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case, 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.

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Opportunities Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case | 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case are -

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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Intrapreneurship Wehkamp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Intrapreneurship Wehkamp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Intrapreneurship Wehkamp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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, Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Buying journey improvements

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

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Threats Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case are -

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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp.

Increasing wage structure of Intrapreneurship Wehkamp

– 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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp.

Trade war between China and United States

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

Environmental challenges

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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. Intrapreneurship Wehkamp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case .

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

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.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Intrapreneurship Wehkamp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Regulatory challenges

– Intrapreneurship Wehkamp 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Three Chronological Steps Toward Encouraging Intrapreneurship: Lessons From the Wehkamp Case 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 Intrapreneurship Wehkamp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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