MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture
MusicJuice.net is a new website designed to bring together musicians and a fan-base in order to raise finance for new bands. It enables musicians to bypass the large established record companies and their high royalty takes, while giving fans direct contact and involvement with exciting new acts. It is an example of a venture idea transported from one country (the Netherlands) and applied in a new and larger geographical setting (North America). The case illustrates the novel "crowd-sourcing" business model, which is designed to raise finance from customers rather than the entrepreneur. Most importantly, the case illustrates the challenges of starting new Internet ventures and the early stage founding issues that are involved. After a long and costly delay in establishing their website, the two founders of MusicJuice.net have struggled to generate any interest or even awareness amongst online musicians and fans, despite only limited competition from other players in the marketplace - a situation, which is already beginning to change. Students are asked what the entrepreneurs behind MusicJuice.net can do to raise awareness of their service and to generate enough customers to survive.
Swot Analysis of "MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture" written by Simon Parker, Rocky Lui includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Musicjuice.net Musicians facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Internet and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Musicjuice.net Musicians, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Musicjuice.net Musicians
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 Musicjuice.net Musicians
Strengths MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Musicjuice.net Musicians in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Musicjuice.net Musicians is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 Simon Parker, Rocky Lui 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.
High brand equity
– Musicjuice.net Musicians has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Musicjuice.net Musicians to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Musicjuice.net Musicians has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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.
Learning organization
- Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 Musicjuice.net Musicians is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Musicjuice.net Musicians has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Musicjuice.net Musicians is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Musicjuice.net Musicians is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Musicjuice.net Musicians in the sector have low bargaining power. MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Musicjuice.net Musicians to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Musicjuice.net Musicians digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Weaknesses MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Musicjuice.net Musicians is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 Musicjuice.net Musicians 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
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 Musicjuice.net Musicians supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Musicjuice.net Musicians vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture, it seems that the employees of Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture, in the dynamic environment Musicjuice.net Musicians has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Musicjuice.net Musicians has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Musicjuice.net Musicians products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Musicjuice.net Musicians needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 - MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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. Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Opportunities MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture | 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Musicjuice.net Musicians in the consumer business. Now Musicjuice.net Musicians can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Musicjuice.net Musicians can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Musicjuice.net Musicians can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Musicjuice.net Musicians operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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, MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Musicjuice.net Musicians can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Musicjuice.net Musicians is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Musicjuice.net Musicians has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Musicjuice.net Musicians to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture case study. Musicjuice.net Musicians can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Musicjuice.net Musicians to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture are -
Increasing wage structure of Musicjuice.net Musicians
– 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 Musicjuice.net Musicians.
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 Musicjuice.net Musicians in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline 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
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Musicjuice.net Musicians with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Musicjuice.net Musicians is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Musicjuice.net Musicians.
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 Musicjuice.net Musicians business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Musicjuice.net Musicians 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
– Musicjuice.net Musicians has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Musicjuice.net Musicians 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of Starting Up a New Internet Venture 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 Musicjuice.net Musicians needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
