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, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Humor Fugere is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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.
Learning organization
- Humor Fugere 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 Humor Fugere is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Humor Fugere in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t 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 Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Humor Fugere is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Humor Fugere 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Humor Fugere is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Humor Fugere supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Humor Fugere vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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 Humor Fugere in the consumer business. Now Humor Fugere can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Humor Fugere has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Humor Fugere to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t case study. Humor Fugere can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Humor Fugere 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.
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.
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. Humor Fugere can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies: Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t, Humor Fugere may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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. Humor Fugere 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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Humor Fugere 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Humor Fugere 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.
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 Humor Fugere in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.