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What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart


This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Composing valuable strategies requires seeing the world in new and unique ways. It requires asking novel questions that prompt fresh insight. Even the most sophisticated, deep learning-enhanced computers or algorithms simply cannot generate such an outlook. Innovative strategies depend more on novel, well-reasoned theories than on well-crunched numbers.

Authors :: Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: Strategy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart" written by Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Composing Crunched facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Composing Crunched, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Composing Crunched
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 Composing Crunched




Strengths What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Composing Crunched in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart Harvard Business Review case study are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry

– What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Composing Crunched to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Composing Crunched to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Composing Crunched in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Training and development

– Composing Crunched has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Composing Crunched is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Composing Crunched is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Composing Crunched 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Composing Crunched has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Composing Crunched 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Composing Crunched is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Composing Crunched is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Composing Crunched 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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.






Weaknesses What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart are -

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger suggests that, Composing Crunched 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 Composing Crunched, firm in the HBR case study What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Need for greater diversity

– Composing Crunched has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Composing Crunched 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. Composing Crunched even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

High dependence on 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 Composing Crunched supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Composing Crunched vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 Composing Crunched has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Composing Crunched 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 - What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Composing Crunched 's lucrative customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Composing Crunched needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Composing Crunched 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart | 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Composing Crunched 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 Composing Crunched to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Buying journey improvements

– Composing Crunched can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Composing Crunched 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Composing Crunched to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Composing Crunched can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Composing Crunched operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Composing Crunched in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution 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 Composing Crunched can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Composing Crunched can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Loyalty marketing

– Composing Crunched 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Composing Crunched 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Composing Crunched 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 Composing Crunched in the consumer business. Now Composing Crunched can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart are -

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.

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. Composing Crunched needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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. Composing Crunched 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Composing Crunched 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Composing Crunched is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Composing Crunched can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Composing Crunched 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Composing Crunched 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.

Environmental challenges

– Composing Crunched 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. Composing Crunched can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart, Composing Crunched 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 .

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 Composing Crunched.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart .

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Composing Crunched has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Composing Crunched 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart 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 Composing Crunched needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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