TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
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
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 - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, etc
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– Trustsphere Analytics is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Trustsphere Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, 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.
Organizational Resilience of Trustsphere Analytics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Trustsphere Analytics does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Trustsphere Analytics has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trustsphere Analytics to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
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.
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Trustsphere Analytics 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 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 -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Trustsphere Analytics 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.
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.
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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, in the dynamic environment Trustsphere Analytics has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Trustsphere Analytics has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Trustsphere Analytics products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Trustsphere Analytics needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics HBR case study mentions - Trustsphere Analytics 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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Trustsphere Analytics to increase its market reach. Trustsphere Analytics 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.
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.
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 Trustsphere Analytics in the consumer business. Now Trustsphere Analytics can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Trustsphere Analytics 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 Trustsphere Analytics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trustsphere Analytics to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trustsphere Analytics can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Trustsphere Analytics 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Trustsphere Analytics can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 -
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.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Trustsphere Analytics 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 TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics .
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trustsphere Analytics in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Environmental challenges
– Trustsphere Analytics 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. Trustsphere Analytics can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
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 Trustsphere Analytics business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Trustsphere Analytics is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
