GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth
GasBuddy is a 15-year-old mobile app-led company, providing gas station and pricing information to drivers and selling ads to fuel stations and convenience store owners. Though the GasBuddy Mobile App has received many awards and often ranks among the top-three travel apps in downloads, competitive pressure is building. Recognizing the competitive shifts, its parent company, UCG, brings in a new management team that is steeped in start-up experience spanning payments, convenience stores, social and mobile media, digital transformation, point of sale systems, modern technology platforms, agile development, and UI/UX. The new team recognizes that speed as well as agility will be essential for future growth. The case takes readers through the company's cultural, digital platform, and product line changes, including a bold entry into the payments industry. The changes support the company's evolved branding and a new multi-sided platform (MSP) business strategy. Early changes across the three areas - culture, digital platform, and product line - are put to the test during highly destructive Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Swot Analysis of "GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth" written by Clare M. Gillan Huang includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gasbuddy Platform facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, IT, Mobile and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gasbuddy Platform, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gasbuddy Platform 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gasbuddy Platform
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gasbuddy Platform
Strengths GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gasbuddy Platform in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Gasbuddy Platform 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 Gasbuddy Platform in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gasbuddy Platform 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Gasbuddy Platform 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 Gasbuddy Platform in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Gasbuddy Platform 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 Gasbuddy Platform is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gasbuddy Platform is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 Gasbuddy Platform
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gasbuddy Platform does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gasbuddy Platform digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gasbuddy Platform 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Gasbuddy Platform has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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.
Weaknesses GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth are -
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 Gasbuddy Platform supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gasbuddy Platform vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Gasbuddy Platform 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 - GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth, it seems that the employees of Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gasbuddy Platform is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Gasbuddy Platform needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gasbuddy Platform to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gasbuddy Platform is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Gasbuddy Platform products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Gasbuddy Platform needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gasbuddy Platform is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth, in the dynamic environment Gasbuddy Platform has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gasbuddy Platform has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Gasbuddy Platform 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth | 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gasbuddy Platform to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gasbuddy Platform has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gasbuddy Platform to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth case study. Gasbuddy Platform can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gasbuddy Platform to increase its market reach. Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gasbuddy Platform can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Gasbuddy Platform can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Gasbuddy Platform can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gasbuddy Platform 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 Gasbuddy Platform to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Gasbuddy Platform 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.
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 Gasbuddy Platform in the consumer business. Now Gasbuddy Platform can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Gasbuddy Platform can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Gasbuddy Platform 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. Gasbuddy Platform 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, Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Threats GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gasbuddy Platform with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gasbuddy Platform 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Gasbuddy Platform 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gasbuddy Platform 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth .
Increasing wage structure of Gasbuddy Platform
– 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 Gasbuddy Platform.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gasbuddy Platform can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Gasbuddy Platform 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.
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. Gasbuddy Platform needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gasbuddy Platform 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.
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 Gasbuddy Platform business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gasbuddy Platform is facing in Technology & Operations 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 Gasbuddy Platform.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Gasbuddy Platform in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 GasBuddy: Fueling Its Digital Platform for Agility and Growth 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 Gasbuddy Platform needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.