Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave
The case describes the journey of Rolocule, a mobile gaming company based out of Pune, India. An early entrant into the mobile gaming space, Rolocule's fortunes go through many ups and downs as the nascent mobile gaming industry experiments with various business models. Rolocule responds by being nimble and flexible, rapidly developing multiple games and pivoting as the industry changes. Product-market fit always seems within reach but each time, an external event derails the company's plans to scale. The case is positioned at a low-point in the company's journey where it must decide whether it wants to continue to play in the B2C gaming space or shift into the B2B space. The case provides rich material to discuss the challenges of building a venture in a rapidly evolving industry and analyze the consequences of adopting different business models.
Authors :: Srivardhini K. Jha, Menaka Rao, Shubhanshuk Sarkar
Swot Analysis of "Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave" written by Srivardhini K. Jha, Menaka Rao, Shubhanshuk Sarkar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rolocule Gaming facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Entrepreneurship and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rolocule Gaming, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rolocule Gaming 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rolocule Gaming
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 Rolocule Gaming
Strengths Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rolocule Gaming in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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.
Training and development
– Rolocule Gaming has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Rolocule Gaming 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Rolocule Gaming digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Rolocule Gaming 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Rolocule Gaming has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
High brand equity
– Rolocule Gaming has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rolocule Gaming to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Rolocule Gaming is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Rolocule Gaming is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rolocule Gaming in the sector have low bargaining power. Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rolocule Gaming to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Rolocule Gaming 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 Srivardhini K. Jha, Menaka Rao, Shubhanshuk Sarkar 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rolocule Gaming to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rolocule Gaming to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Rolocule Gaming has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rolocule Gaming 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.
Weaknesses Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave, in the dynamic environment Rolocule Gaming has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Rolocule Gaming has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave, it seems that the employees of Rolocule Gaming 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rolocule Gaming 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 - Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Rolocule Gaming 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rolocule Gaming 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. Rolocule Gaming even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Gaming 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Rolocule Gaming is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Rolocule Gaming is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Gaming has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Rolocule Gaming 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Rolocule Gaming, firm in the HBR case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave | 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Rolocule Gaming can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rolocule Gaming is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rolocule Gaming 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rolocule Gaming to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Rolocule Gaming can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rolocule Gaming 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Rolocule Gaming 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Rolocule Gaming 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rolocule Gaming has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rolocule Gaming to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave case study. Rolocule Gaming can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Rolocule Gaming can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Rolocule Gaming 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 Rolocule Gaming to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Rolocule Gaming to increase its market reach. Rolocule Gaming 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Rolocule Gaming in the consumer business. Now Rolocule Gaming can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Rolocule Gaming can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave are -
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. Rolocule Gaming can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rolocule Gaming 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Rolocule Gaming 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Rolocule Gaming is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Rolocule Gaming business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Rolocule Gaming 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.
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 Rolocule Gaming in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Rolocule Gaming 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. Rolocule Gaming can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rolocule Gaming 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 Rolocule Gaming with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Rolocule Gaming
– 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 Rolocule Gaming.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rolocule Gaming 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Games: Negotiating the Mobile Gaming Wave 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 Rolocule Gaming needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.