Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
"Thin political markets" are the processes through which some of the most complex and critical institutions of our capitalist system are determined-e.g., our accounting-standards infrastructure. In thin political markets, corporate managers are largely unopposed-because of their own expertise and the general public's low awareness of the issues. This enables managers to structure the "rules of the game" in self-serving ways. The result is a structural flaw in the determination of critical institutions of our capitalist system, which, if ignored, can undermine the legitimacy of the system. This article provides some ideas on how to fix the problem.
Swot Analysis of "Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism" written by Karthik Ramanna includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Thin Capitalist facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Sustainability and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thin Capitalist, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thin Capitalist
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 Thin Capitalist
Strengths Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thin Capitalist in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Thin Capitalist is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Capitalist in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Thin Capitalist 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
– Thin Capitalist is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Learning organization
- Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Capitalist is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Thin Capitalist is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Thin Capitalist in the sector have low bargaining power. Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Thin Capitalist to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Thin Capitalist has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Thin Capitalist 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Thin Capitalist has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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.
Weaknesses Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Thin Capitalist needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Thin Capitalist supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thin Capitalist vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism, in the dynamic environment Thin Capitalist has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Thin Capitalist has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Thin Capitalist has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism HBR case study mentions - Thin Capitalist 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Thin Capitalist 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. Thin Capitalist 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Thin Capitalist, firm in the HBR case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Thin Capitalist is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Thin Capitalist 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 - Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Thin Capitalist 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.
Opportunities Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism | 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Thin Capitalist has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Thin Capitalist to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism case study. Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Capitalist 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Capitalist to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Thin Capitalist 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. Thin Capitalist 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Thin Capitalist to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Thin Capitalist 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Thin Capitalist can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Thin Capitalist 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Thin Capitalist can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Thin Capitalist operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Thin Capitalist 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Thin Capitalist to increase its market reach. Thin Capitalist 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Capitalist 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.
Threats Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism are -
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. Thin Capitalist 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.
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. Thin Capitalist can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Thin Capitalist
– 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 Thin Capitalist.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism, Thin Capitalist 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thin Capitalist 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.
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 Thin Capitalist.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Thin Capitalist is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Thin Capitalist business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Thin Capitalist has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Thin Capitalist needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thin Capitalist 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Thin Capitalist with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Thin Capitalist 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. Thin Capitalist can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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 Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism 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 Thin Capitalist needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.