Case Study Description of MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger
In 2015, MobilityWorks, the largest mobility dealership and reformer of wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) in the United States, found itself unable to cater to a large enough fraction of the population with limited mobility. With the baby boomers starting to retire, the gap was widening at a pace much faster than the growth of the WAV industry. How could MobilityWorks re-work its business strategy in order to grow across different market segments? Chris Laszlo and Katherine Gullett are affiliated with Case Western Reserve University.
Authors :: Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Manish Gupta
Swot Analysis of "MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger" written by Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Manish Gupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mobilityworks Mobility facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mobilityworks Mobility, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mobilityworks Mobility 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mobilityworks Mobility
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 Mobilityworks Mobility
Strengths MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mobilityworks Mobility in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Manish Gupta 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mobilityworks Mobility has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Learning organization
- Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Mobilityworks Mobility is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Mobilityworks Mobility is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mobilityworks Mobility to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mobilityworks Mobility to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mobilityworks Mobility digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Mobilityworks Mobility in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mobilityworks Mobility in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mobilityworks Mobility is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Mobilityworks Mobility is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mobilityworks Mobility is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Mobilityworks Mobility needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mobilityworks Mobility to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger HBR case study mentions - Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mobilityworks Mobility 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 - MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger, is just above the industry average. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mobilityworks Mobility 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. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mobilityworks Mobility 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger, in the dynamic environment Mobilityworks Mobility has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mobilityworks Mobility has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 Mobilityworks Mobility has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger | 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Mobilityworks Mobility to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Mobilityworks Mobility can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Mobilityworks Mobility has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mobilityworks Mobility to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger case study. Mobilityworks Mobility can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Mobilityworks Mobility in the consumer business. Now Mobilityworks Mobility can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mobilityworks Mobility to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Mobilityworks Mobility 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. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
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 Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mobilityworks Mobility can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mobilityworks Mobility can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mobilityworks Mobility operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Threats MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mobilityworks Mobility has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mobilityworks Mobility needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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. Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mobilityworks Mobility 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 Mobilityworks Mobility in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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. Mobilityworks Mobility can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mobilityworks Mobility 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mobilityworks Mobility with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mobilityworks Mobility 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mobilityworks Mobility is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Mobilityworks Mobility needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 MobilityWorks: Faster, Higher, Stronger 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 Mobilityworks Mobility needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
