Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t
This set of Humor: Serious Business "Caselet Studies" follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of humor in the business world. Sara Blakely (in Using Humor to Launch a Company) explores how humor drove her revolutionary startup SPANX from a one-person startup to global phenomenon. Brian Fugere (in Bigger Than Bullsh*t) analyzes how humor helped infuse humanity back to the consulting world. Eric Gurian (in Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times) discusses how humor engaged a community in a serious issue and moved people to action.
Authors :: Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert
Swot Analysis of "Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t" written by Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Humor Fugere facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Humor Fugere, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Humor Fugere 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Humor Fugere
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 Humor Fugere
Strengths Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Humor Fugere in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Humor Fugere to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Humor Fugere to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Humor Fugere 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Humor Fugere 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Humor Fugere has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Humor Fugere digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Humor Fugere 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Humor Fugere is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Humor Fugere 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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.
Analytics focus
– Humor Fugere 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 Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert 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.
Organizational Resilience of Humor Fugere
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Humor Fugere does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Humor Fugere is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Humor Fugere in the sector have low bargaining power. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Humor Fugere to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter A. Seibert suggests that, Humor Fugere 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Humor Fugere, firm in the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Humor Fugere 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Humor Fugere 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 Humor Fugere products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Humor Fugere needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Humor Fugere 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor Fugere has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Humor Fugere 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 - Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Humor Fugere is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Humor Fugere needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Humor Fugere to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t HBR case study mentions - Humor Fugere 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.
Opportunities Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t | 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Humor Fugere 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Humor Fugere 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Humor Fugere can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Humor Fugere to increase its market reach. Humor Fugere 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, Humor Fugere 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Humor Fugere can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Humor Fugere 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. Humor Fugere 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.
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 Humor Fugere 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
– Humor Fugere has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Humor Fugere can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Humor Fugere 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Humor Fugere to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Humor Fugere 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 Humor Fugere to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Humor Fugere 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.
Threats Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Humor Fugere 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.
Increasing wage structure of Humor Fugere
– 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 Humor Fugere.
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 Humor Fugere business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Humor Fugere can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Humor Fugere.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Humor Fugere 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. Humor Fugere can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Humor Fugere has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Humor Fugere 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Humor Fugere is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Humor Fugere needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Humor Fugere with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Humor Fugere 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor Fugere needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
