Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. This year's MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte1 global survey found clear evidence that companies across industries are creating value with social business. A key finding is that social business value is a function of what we call social business maturity -the breadth and sophistication of its initiatives. In this year's report, we detail the drivers of that maturity and how companies are using social business to transform their organizations and reap greater gains from their social business efforts.
Authors :: Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips, David Kiron
Swot Analysis of "Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise" written by Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips, David Kiron includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Social Maturity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Social Maturity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Social Maturity 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Social Maturity
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 Social Maturity
Strengths Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Social Maturity in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Social Maturity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Social Maturity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Social Maturity 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Social Maturity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Social Maturity 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Social Maturity to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Social Maturity to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Social Maturity 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Social Maturity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Social Maturity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Social Maturity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Social Maturity is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Social Maturity 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 Social Maturity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Social Maturity 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 Social Maturity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Social Maturity is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Social Maturity needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Social Maturity to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Social Maturity 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Social Maturity 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise HBR case study mentions - Social Maturity 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Social Maturity 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise, is just above the industry average. Social Maturity needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Social Maturity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Social Maturity 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Social Maturity 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.
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 Social Maturity supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Social Maturity vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise | 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Social Maturity has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Social Maturity to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise case study. Social Maturity can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Social Maturity can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Social Maturity operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Social Maturity 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.
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. Social Maturity 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. Social Maturity 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.
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. Social Maturity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Social Maturity to increase its market reach. Social Maturity 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Social Maturity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Social Maturity 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Social Maturity 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Social Maturity 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Social Maturity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Social Maturity can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Social Maturity 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Social Maturity 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.
Threats Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise are -
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. Social Maturity can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Social Maturity is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Social Maturity with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Social Maturity 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.
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.
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. Social Maturity 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Social Maturity 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.
Increasing wage structure of Social Maturity
– 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 Social Maturity.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Social Maturity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Social Maturity 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Social Maturity 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Social Maturity 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise .
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 Social Maturity in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Social Maturity needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise 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 Social Maturity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.