Case Study Description of Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad
Debito Technologies s.r.o. was started in December 2014 to help creditors better manage their issued debt. The company provided a complete beginning-to-end service using a debt management application (app) that traced debtors by following their digital footprint. The whole process was managed with just the mobile app and had no upfront fees. In 2017, with success in the Czech market, the company was considering expanding its operations abroad. The company needed to first select a country that provided excellent market potential and product fit, and then develop an ideal market entry. Ladislav Tyll and Mohit Srivastava are affiliated with University of Economics, Prague.
Swot Analysis of "Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad" written by Ladislav Tyll, Mohit Srivastava includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Debito App facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, International business, Marketing, Mobile and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Debito App, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Debito App 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Debito App
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Debito App
Strengths Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Debito App in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Debito App in the sector have low bargaining power. Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Debito App to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Debito App 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Debito App in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Debito App 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 Debito App is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Debito App is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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.
Organizational Resilience of Debito App
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Debito App does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Debito App is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Debito App 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 Debito App in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Debito App has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Debito App to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Debito App 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Debito App 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.
Weaknesses Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Debito App 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito App has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Debito App 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Debito App is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Debito App 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. Debito App 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ladislav Tyll, Mohit Srivastava suggests that, Debito App 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Debito App products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Debito App needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Debito App 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High 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 Debito App supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Debito App vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Debito App 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.
Opportunities Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad | 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Debito App 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. Debito App 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Debito App 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Debito App 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 Debito App to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Debito App 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.
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 Debito App in the consumer business. Now Debito App can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Debito App can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Debito App 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Debito App is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Debito App in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business 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 Debito App 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Debito App can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Debito App operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Debito App can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Debito App 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 Global Business segment.
Threats Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito App.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Debito App 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Debito App 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.
Increasing wage structure of Debito App
– 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 Debito App.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Debito App can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Debito App 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. Debito App can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Debito App in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Debito App 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Debito App has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Debito App needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Debito App in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Debito App 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 Debito App 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito Technologies: Taking a Debt Management App Abroad 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 Debito App needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.