Case Study Description of Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings
These three short vignettes depict investment professionals considering difficult financings for companies in their portfolios. For one reason or another, each company has under-performed expectations. Should the protagonist recommend that the firm participate or not, or should he try to revise it? Can the firm exercise any influence, and are the potential gains worth the time and effort that will be required?
Swot Analysis of "Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings" written by G. Felda Hardymon, Ann Leamon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Financings Vignettes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Strategy, Venture capital and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing,
there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Financings Vignettes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Financings Vignettes 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Financings Vignettes
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Financings Vignettes
Strengths Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Financings Vignettes in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Financings Vignettes
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Financings Vignettes does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Financings Vignettes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Financings Vignettes is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Financings Vignettes in the sector have low bargaining power. Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Financings Vignettes to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Financings Vignettes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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.
High brand equity
– Financings Vignettes has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Financings Vignettes to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Financings Vignettes 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 Financings Vignettes is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Financings Vignettes to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Financings Vignettes to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Financings Vignettes 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Financings Vignettes has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Financings Vignettes 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Financings Vignettes 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Financings Vignettes 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 Financings Vignettes in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Financings Vignettes is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Financings Vignettes needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Financings Vignettes to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, G. Felda Hardymon, Ann Leamon suggests that, Financings Vignettes 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings, is just above the industry average. Financings Vignettes 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings, it seems that the employees of Financings Vignettes 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Financings Vignettes, firm in the HBR case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Financings Vignettes 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Financings Vignettes 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 - Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Financings Vignettes 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. Financings Vignettes 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Financings Vignettes products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Financings Vignettes needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings HBR case study mentions - Financings Vignettes 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings | 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Financings Vignettes 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Financings Vignettes can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Financings Vignettes can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Financings Vignettes is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Financings Vignettes in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Financings Vignettes 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Financings Vignettes has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Financings Vignettes to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings case study. Financings Vignettes can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Financings Vignettes can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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
– Financings Vignettes 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Financings Vignettes to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Financings Vignettes can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Financings Vignettes can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Financings Vignettes to increase its market reach. Financings Vignettes 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.
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 Financings Vignettes in the consumer business. Now Financings Vignettes can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Financings Vignettes in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Financings Vignettes.
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. Financings Vignettes needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Financings Vignettes business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Financings Vignettes 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
– Financings Vignettes 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Financings Vignettes can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings, Financings Vignettes may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Financings Vignettes in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Financings Vignettes 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. Financings Vignettes can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Financings Vignettes with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Venture Capital Vignettes: Difficult Financings 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 Financings Vignettes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
