OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media

Established in 2006, OSSCube was an open source software development company based in North Carolina, United States, which had its India office in Noida and its development centres in Delhi, Bangalore and Noida. OSSCube started as a software training provider and gradually emerged as an open source software development and consulting company. The marketing of OSSCube's offerings was primarily executed by search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives. Later on, OSSCube created a social media presence on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Vimeo, YouTube, Blip.TV, Blog and Friendfeed. The primary objective of creating a presence on these social media platforms was to augment the company's SEO initiatives. This strategy did help OSSCube in gaining business leads; however, Kinshuk, the community manager of the firm, realized that this strategy was not building the brand identity of OSSCube. Also, the thought of having a wide presence on social media platforms to augment SEO activities created some sort of confusion in consumers' minds regarding OSSCube's expertise. Hence, in 2010, Kinshuk was reviewing the social media approach with some definite objectives such as branding employees, branding OSSCube and promoting open source software. He faced the challenge of forming an appropriate social media strategy that would address these objectives.

Authors :: Anandan Pillai, Ashok Pratap Arora

Topics :: Global Business

Tags :: International business, Marketing, Social platforms, Strategy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media" written by Anandan Pillai, Ashok Pratap Arora includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Osscube Media facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Marketing, Social platforms, Strategy and Global Business.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Osscube Media, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Osscube Media 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Osscube Media
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 Osscube Media

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Strengths OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Osscube Media in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media Harvard Business Review case study are -

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Osscube Media 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.

Superior customer experience

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

Training and development

– Osscube Media has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Osscube Media in the sector have low bargaining power. OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Osscube Media to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Innovation driven organization

– Osscube Media is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

High brand equity

– Osscube Media has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Osscube Media to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Organizational Resilience of Osscube Media

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Osscube Media does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry

– OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Osscube Media to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Osscube Media to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Osscube Media 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.

Ability to lead change in Global Business field

– Osscube Media 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 Osscube Media in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Digital Transformation in Global Business segment

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

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Weaknesses OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Osscube Media 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 - OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 Osscube Media 's lucrative customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Osscube Media products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Osscube Media needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Osscube Media 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Osscube Media 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media, in the dynamic environment Osscube Media has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Osscube Media has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Osscube Media, firm in the HBR case study OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 Osscube Media has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Need for greater diversity

– Osscube Media has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

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 Osscube Media supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Osscube Media vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anandan Pillai, Ashok Pratap Arora suggests that, Osscube Media 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.

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Opportunities OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media | 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Osscube Media 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.

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. Osscube Media can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Osscube Media 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 Osscube Media to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Osscube Media 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

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

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Osscube Media 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 Global Business segment.

Manufacturing automation

– Osscube Media 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Osscube Media 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Osscube Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Osscube Media to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Osscube Media 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, OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Loyalty marketing

– Osscube Media 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Osscube Media 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. Osscube Media 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Osscube Media is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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.

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Threats OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Osscube Media 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.

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. Osscube Media 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.

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.

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Osscube Media high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Increasing wage structure of Osscube Media

– 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 Osscube Media.

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 Osscube Media.

Environmental challenges

– Osscube Media 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. Osscube Media can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media, Osscube Media may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .

Regulatory challenges

– Osscube Media 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Osscube Media is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Osscube Media 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Osscube Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media .

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 OSSCube: Leveraging Social Media 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 Osscube Media needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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