New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions
A corporation that employs an "outside-in" startup program needs to screen a large number of potential startups and assess each time: What is the value of the startup's offering to our business, and what resources and support will the startup need so we can actually obtain its offering? However, many startups are not very good at communicating their customer value proposition in a way that helps the customer firm making such assessments. This article recommends that startups construct two sequential value propositions. The Innovative Offering Value Proposition communicates how the startup's offering creates superior value for the customer. It answers the question: What is extraordinary about the startup's offering that will enable the customer to solve a significant problem it has or achieve a top priority it has? The Leveraging Assistance Value Proposition conveys what the customer firm will get in return for providing support and resources to the startup. It answers the question: What will make it worthwhile from the customer's perspective to support the startup to realize its innovative offering?
Authors :: Marc Wouters, James C. Anderson, Markus Kirchberger
Swot Analysis of "New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions" written by Marc Wouters, James C. Anderson, Markus Kirchberger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Startup's Startups facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Startup's Startups, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Startup's Startups
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 Startup's Startups
Strengths New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Startup's Startups in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Startup's Startups
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Startup's Startups does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Startup's Startups 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 Startup's Startups in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Startup's Startups is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Startup's Startups 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Startup's Startups 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Startup's Startups is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Startup's Startups 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 Startup's Startups is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions - 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
– Startup's Startups has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Startup's Startups 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Startup's Startups, firm in the HBR case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Startup's Startups 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 - New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 Startup's Startups has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Startup's Startups products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Startup's Startups needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Startup's Startups 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
– Startup's Startups 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions, is just above the industry average. Startup's Startups needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions, it seems that the employees of Startup's Startups 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Startup's Startups is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Startup's Startups is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Startup's Startups needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Startup's Startups to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions | 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Startup's Startups can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Startup's Startups can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Startup's Startups 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, Startup's Startups is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Startup's Startups 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, New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Startup's Startups 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Startup's Startups 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Startup's Startups 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Startup's Startups to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Startup's Startups can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Startup's Startups can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Startup's Startups can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Startup's Startups operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Startup's Startups can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Startup's Startups 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.
Threats New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions are -
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Startup's Startups business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Startup's Startups with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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. Startup's Startups 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Startup's Startups 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Startup's Startups 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Startup's Startups has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Startup's Startups 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions, Startup's Startups 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 .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Startup's Startups 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
– Startup's Startups 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.
Increasing wage structure of Startup's Startups
– 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 Startup's Startups.
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. Startup's Startups needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 New-Technology Startups Seeking Pilot Customers: Crafting a Pair of Value Propositions 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 Startup's Startups needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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