Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy
This article offers an innovative graphical approach to facilitating an interactive discussion about identifying and assessing potential growth opportunities. Our approach, circle mapping, visually conceptualizes growth as occupying space, where market space is defined by a set of concentric circles. The circle presently occupied by the firm is defined by its current set of customers and the value proposition offered to them, while the outer concentric circles represent growth opportunities that are defined by new customers and value propositions. The process of circle mapping prompts leadership teams to formulate a growth strategy by visually mapping the value proposition for future customers in relation to the firm's capacity to access the resources and capabilities needed to successfully occupy those spaces. The model allows leaders to conceptualize growth strategies, such as leveraging success in one circle to target consumers in another. It can also allow leaders to evaluate the rewards and risks associated with different growth opportunities, while the visual aspect of the model assists with overcoming some common challenges of applying strategy frameworks to develop new strategies. By having leaders visually depict and justify where and why they want to grow, circle mapping helps firms conceptualize a profitable future and then confidently move toward that space.
Authors :: Vince Bruni-Bossio, Norman T. Sheehan, Chelsea R. Willness
Swot Analysis of "Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy" written by Vince Bruni-Bossio, Norman T. Sheehan, Chelsea R. Willness includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Circle Mapping facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Circle Mapping, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Circle Mapping 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Circle Mapping
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Circle Mapping
Strengths Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Circle Mapping in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Circle Mapping has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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.
Learning organization
- Circle Mapping 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 Circle Mapping is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Circle Mapping 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 Vince Bruni-Bossio, Norman T. Sheehan, Chelsea R. Willness 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Circle Mapping is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Circle Mapping is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Circle Mapping has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Circle Mapping 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)
– Circle Mapping 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Circle Mapping to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Circle Mapping to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Circle Mapping 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.
Organizational Resilience of Circle Mapping
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Circle Mapping does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Circle Mapping is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping in the sector have low bargaining power. Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Circle Mapping to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy, is just above the industry average. Circle Mapping 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Circle Mapping 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Vince Bruni-Bossio, Norman T. Sheehan, Chelsea R. Willness suggests that, Circle Mapping 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 Circle Mapping 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Circle Mapping 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. Circle Mapping 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Circle Mapping is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Circle Mapping is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Circle Mapping is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Circle Mapping needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Circle Mapping to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Circle Mapping supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Circle Mapping vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Circle Mapping products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Circle Mapping needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy | 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy are -
Manufacturing automation
– Circle Mapping can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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 Circle Mapping in the consumer business. Now Circle Mapping can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Circle Mapping is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Circle Mapping 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Circle Mapping can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Circle Mapping 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Circle Mapping 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Circle Mapping to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Circle Mapping can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Circle Mapping 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
– Circle Mapping can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Circle Mapping 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, Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Circle Mapping has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Circle Mapping to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy case study. Circle Mapping can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Circle Mapping 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.
Threats Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy are -
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 Circle Mapping.
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. Circle Mapping needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Circle Mapping 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy, Circle Mapping may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Circle Mapping 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Circle Mapping in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Circle Mapping 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.
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 Circle Mapping in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Circle Mapping 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.
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 Circle Mapping business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Circle Mapping is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Circle Mapping has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Circle Mapping needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping Your Firm's Growth Strategy 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 Circle Mapping needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
