Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft
Discusses the plans of the Hong Kong government to seek approval of its proposal to replace the current Hong Kong ID card with a smart ID card. The approval in question is sought from the Hong Kong legislature. Introduces students to the reason behind the current ID card replacement in Hong Kong: the vulnerability of the current card to counterfeiting and the increased risk of identity theft in Hong Kong. Identity theft is a growing problem around the world and the fastest growing crime in the United States. Students are asked to suggest a list of criteria for Hong Kong's new ID card.
Swot Analysis of "Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft" written by Ali F. Farhoomand, Francois Roy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Id Card facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Id Card, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Id Card 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Id Card
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 Id Card
Strengths Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Id Card in Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Id Card has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Id Card to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Id Card 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 Id Card in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Id Card 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 Id Card is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Id Card to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Id Card to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Id Card
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Id Card 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 Id Card 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.
Analytics focus
– Id Card is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Ali F. Farhoomand, Francois Roy can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Id Card is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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)
– Id Card 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Id Card in the sector have low bargaining power. Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Id Card to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Id Card 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Id Card 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Id Card has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Id Card 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. Id Card 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft, it seems that the employees of Id Card 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Id Card is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Id Card has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Id Card 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Id Card 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 - Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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, Ali F. Farhoomand, Francois Roy suggests that, Id Card 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft HBR case study mentions - Id Card 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Id Card 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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.
Opportunities Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft | 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft are -
Buying journey improvements
– Id Card can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Id Card 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
– Id Card 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Id Card 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Id Card 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, Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Id Card 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.
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. Id Card can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Id Card 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 Id Card to increase its market reach. Id Card 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.
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 Id Card 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.
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. Id Card can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Id Card 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.
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. Id Card 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. Id Card 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.
Threats Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft are -
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 Id Card business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Id Card 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Id Card 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.
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. Id Card needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Id Card
– 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 Id Card.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Id Card 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Id Card has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Id Card 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Id Card with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Id Card is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Id Card 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Id Card 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Replacing Hong Kong's ID Card (A): Fighting Identity Theft 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 Id Card needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.