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TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics


Manish Goel was the CEO of TrustSphere, a seven-year-old company in the data analytics industry that focused squarely on relationship analytics, a space in which TrustSphere was pioneering a unique technology and solutions in the areas of sales, risk, and people analytics. Essentially, TrustSphere's technology allowed its customers to view the patterns of digital communication captured on the organization's communication infrastructure among internal and external players. With this information, TrustSphere could help customers infer where relationships existed and the strength of those relationships, information that could be leveraged to address a number of business challenges and opportunities. Based in Singapore, but operating globally, TrustSphere was trying to get its footing and establish its technology and solutions as a "must-have" for prospective customers, all the while trying to navigate the relatively unchartered waters of relationship analytics.

Authors :: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Networking, Organizational culture, Talent management, Technology, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics" written by Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Trustsphere Analytics facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Networking, Organizational culture, Talent management, Technology and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trustsphere Analytics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trustsphere Analytics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Trustsphere Analytics




Strengths TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Trustsphere Analytics in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics Harvard Business Review case study are -

Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Trustsphere Analytics digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry

– TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trustsphere Analytics to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trustsphere Analytics to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Trustsphere Analytics is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Superior customer experience

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

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Training and development

– Trustsphere Analytics has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Diverse revenue streams

– Trustsphere Analytics is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Trustsphere Analytics is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Analytics focus

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden 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.






Weaknesses TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics are -

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Trustsphere Analytics is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Trustsphere Analytics 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 - TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Trustsphere Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics 's lucrative customers.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, it seems that the employees of Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, is just above the industry average. Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Trustsphere Analytics is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Trustsphere Analytics needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Trustsphere Analytics to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Trustsphere Analytics, firm in the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.




Opportunities TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics | 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics are -

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. Trustsphere Analytics can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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 Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Trustsphere Analytics 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 Organizational Development segment.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Trustsphere Analytics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Trustsphere Analytics to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics case study. Trustsphere Analytics can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Manufacturing automation

– Trustsphere Analytics can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Trustsphere Analytics in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Buying journey improvements

– Trustsphere Analytics can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Trustsphere Analytics 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. Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Loyalty marketing

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics are -

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 Trustsphere Analytics in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, Trustsphere Analytics may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .

Consumer confidence and its impact on Trustsphere Analytics 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 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. Trustsphere Analytics needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Regulatory challenges

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Trustsphere Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics

– 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 Trustsphere Analytics.

Easy access to finance

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

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Trustsphere Analytics has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Trustsphere Analytics needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.

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 Trustsphere Analytics.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

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. Trustsphere Analytics 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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