The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness
StockX is the world's first "stock market of things", a consumer marketplace for high-demand, limited edition products that operates exactly like the stock market. The underlying concept is to allow participants to buy and sell authenticated products in a live marketplace where they trade anonymously (with stock market-like visibility). The StockX exchange offers buyers and sellers historical price and volume metrics, real-time bids and offers (asks), time-stamped trades, individualized portfolio tracking and metrics, as well as in-depth market analysis and news. A partnership with Eminem, a native of Detroit, got StockX off the ground by creating exclusive content and access to rare sneakers from the rapper's personal collection. To build on this momentum, StockX needs to develop a growth strategy.
Swot Analysis of "The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness" written by David A. Soberman, Markus Christen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Stockx Stock facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Stockx Stock, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Stockx Stock 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Stockx Stock
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Stockx Stock
Strengths The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Stockx Stock in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Stockx Stock in the sector have low bargaining power. The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Stockx Stock to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Stockx Stock 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Stockx Stock to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Stockx Stock to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Stockx Stock 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Stockx Stock 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Stockx Stock 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 David A. Soberman, Markus Christen 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 brand equity
– Stockx Stock has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Stockx Stock to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Stockx Stock is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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
– Stockx Stock is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Stockx Stock is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Stockx Stock has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Stockx Stock in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David A. Soberman, Markus Christen suggests that, Stockx Stock 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Stockx Stock is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Stockx Stock is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Stockx Stock 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 Stockx Stock has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Stockx Stock 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Stockx Stock 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Stockx Stock products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Stockx Stock needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness, is just above the industry average. Stockx Stock 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness, it seems that the employees of Stockx Stock don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Opportunities The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness | 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Stockx Stock can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Stockx Stock has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Stockx Stock to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness case study. Stockx Stock can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Stockx Stock 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
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 Stockx Stock 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Stockx Stock 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Stockx Stock 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Stockx Stock is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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
– Stockx Stock has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Stockx Stock can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Stockx Stock 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Stockx Stock to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Stockx Stock to increase its market reach. Stockx Stock will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Stockx Stock in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing 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 Stockx Stock can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness are -
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 Stockx Stock business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness, Stockx Stock may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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 Stockx Stock.
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. Stockx Stock needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Stockx Stock 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. Stockx Stock can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Stockx Stock has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Stockx Stock needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Stockx Stock in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Stockx Stock 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
– Stockx Stock 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Stockx Stock 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Stockx Stock 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 Stockx Stock 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Stockx Stock can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 The Story of StockX: Scaling a Digital Business to Greatness 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 Stockx Stock needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
