Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up
This case is accompanied by a Video Short that can be shown in class or included in a digital coursepack. Instructors should consider the timing of making the video available to students, as it may reveal key case details.The development of a new venture partnership and the challenges associated with raising its first fund are chronicled. The decision to focus on early-stage investments, the determination of the appropriate size of the fund, the fund-raising process, and the steps in closing are all examined. Also presents information on the relationships among the five partners, the division of responsibilities, and the compensation package. Provides personal background on each of the partners and explores their motivation for choosing this career change at this particular moment in their lives.
Swot Analysis of "Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up" written by Myra M. Hart, Kristin J. Lieb includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fund Partners facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Informal leadership, Joint ventures, Venture capital and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fund Partners, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fund Partners 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fund Partners
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fund Partners
Strengths Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fund Partners in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fund Partners is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Fund Partners is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fund Partners to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fund Partners to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fund Partners in the sector have low bargaining power. Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fund Partners to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Fund Partners 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 Fund Partners is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fund Partners digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fund Partners 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.
High brand equity
– Fund Partners has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fund Partners to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fund Partners 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Fund Partners
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fund Partners does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fund Partners 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fund Partners 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Fund Partners has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fund Partners 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fund Partners, firm in the HBR case study Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fund Partners is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Fund Partners needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fund Partners to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fund Partners 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fund Partners 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. Fund Partners 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 Fund Partners products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fund Partners needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fund Partners 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 - Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Myra M. Hart, Kristin J. Lieb suggests that, Fund Partners 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fund Partners is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Fund Partners 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up | 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fund Partners can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fund Partners 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fund Partners to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fund Partners 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
– Fund Partners can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fund Partners can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fund Partners operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Fund Partners can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
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 Fund Partners 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 Fund Partners has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fund Partners to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up case study. Fund Partners can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Fund Partners can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fund Partners can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fund Partners 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 Fund Partners to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Fund Partners 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fund Partners can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Fund Partners in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Fund Partners 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fund Partners with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fund Partners 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.
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 Fund Partners business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Fund Partners needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fund Partners in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
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 Fund Partners.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fund Partners has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fund Partners needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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.
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 Fund Partners demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fund Partners can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up 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 Fund Partners needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
