U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"
The case focuses on the US Dept. of Energy and the $38 billion dollars of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital intensive development and commercialization programs. The case focuses on two DOE programs in particular, the Loan Guarantee Program and ARPA-E. The case raises the question of why these valleys of death exist, what can be done to deal with them, and how these DOE programs are designed and implemented.
Authors :: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter, Ramana Nanda
Swot Analysis of "U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"" written by Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter, Ramana Nanda includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Doe Death facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Innovation, Policy, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Doe Death, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Doe Death 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Doe Death
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Doe Death
Strengths U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Doe Death in U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Doe Death digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Doe Death 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Doe Death 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Doe Death is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Doe Death 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 Doe Death 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Doe Death is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Doe Death 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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.
Organizational Resilience of Doe Death
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Doe Death does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Doe Death 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 Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter, Ramana Nanda 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Doe Death in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Doe Death in the sector have low bargaining power. U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Doe Death to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Doe Death 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. Doe Death 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Doe Death is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 Doe Death has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter, Ramana Nanda suggests that, Doe Death 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Doe Death 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 - U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 Doe Death 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Doe Death 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Doe Death 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Doe Death 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death", it seems that the employees of Doe Death 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Doe Death is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" | 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Doe Death 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. Doe Death 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Doe Death 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 Doe Death to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Doe Death is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Doe Death 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Doe Death 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Doe Death 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, Doe Death 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, U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death", to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Doe Death has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Doe Death to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" case study. Doe Death 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, Doe Death 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Doe Death to increase its market reach. Doe Death 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Doe Death 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
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 Doe Death 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. Doe Death 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 Doe Death 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.
Threats U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" are -
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Doe Death can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Doe Death 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Doe Death 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Doe Death 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Doe Death 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" .
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 Doe Death business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Doe Death 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. Doe Death can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Doe Death 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Doe Death has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Doe Death needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 Doe Death in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 wage structure of Doe Death
– 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 Doe Death.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death" 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 Doe Death needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.