Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Responding to a recently published essay, a reader pushed back against the view that managers must prepare for radical and rapid change in a digital world; he argued that this position may be overly alarmist. The discussion continues.
Swot Analysis of "Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?" written by Bruce Posner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Alarmist Overhyped facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Alarmist Overhyped, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Alarmist Overhyped
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Alarmist Overhyped
Strengths Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Alarmist Overhyped in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Alarmist Overhyped is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Alarmist Overhyped in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Alarmist Overhyped 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 Alarmist Overhyped is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Alarmist Overhyped has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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.
Organizational Resilience of Alarmist Overhyped
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Alarmist Overhyped does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Alarmist Overhyped has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Alarmist Overhyped 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 brand equity
– Alarmist Overhyped has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Alarmist Overhyped to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Alarmist Overhyped in the sector have low bargaining power. Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Alarmist Overhyped to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? HBR case study mentions - Alarmist Overhyped takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Alarmist Overhyped products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Alarmist Overhyped needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Alarmist Overhyped, firm in the HBR case study Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?, is just above the industry average. Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Alarmist Overhyped 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. Alarmist Overhyped 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Alarmist Overhyped has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Alarmist Overhyped 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Alarmist Overhyped supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Alarmist Overhyped vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?, it seems that the employees of Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Opportunities Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? | 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? are -
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 Alarmist Overhyped in the consumer business. Now Alarmist Overhyped can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Alarmist Overhyped 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Alarmist Overhyped is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Alarmist Overhyped 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 Alarmist Overhyped 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, Alarmist Overhyped can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Alarmist Overhyped operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Alarmist Overhyped 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. Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Alarmist Overhyped has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Alarmist Overhyped to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? case study. Alarmist Overhyped 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, Alarmist Overhyped 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, Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Alarmist Overhyped to increase its market reach. Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Alarmist Overhyped 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Alarmist Overhyped to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Alarmist Overhyped business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? .
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. Alarmist Overhyped 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.
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 Alarmist Overhyped in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Alarmist Overhyped.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Alarmist Overhyped has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Alarmist Overhyped needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Alarmist Overhyped with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Alarmist Overhyped 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.
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. Alarmist Overhyped needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Alarmist Overhyped 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Alarmist Overhyped
– 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 Alarmist Overhyped.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Alarmist Overhyped 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Is the Threat of Digital Disruption Overhyped? 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 Alarmist Overhyped needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.