Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?
Abhi Shah ('06) co-founding CEO of Clutch Group in the US and Bangalore, must decide whether to risk a law suit by recruiting an entire legal services team from a large US corporation. His decision and how he implements it will have a dramatic impact on the legal process outsourcing startup.
Swot Analysis of "Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?" written by Daniel J. Isenberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Abhi Clutch facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Entrepreneurship, International business, Operations management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Abhi Clutch, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Abhi Clutch 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Abhi Clutch
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 Abhi Clutch
Strengths Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Abhi Clutch in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Abhi Clutch is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Abhi Clutch is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Abhi Clutch 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Abhi Clutch 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Abhi Clutch 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Abhi Clutch to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Abhi Clutch to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Abhi Clutch 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 Abhi Clutch in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Abhi Clutch is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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.
Learning organization
- Abhi Clutch 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 Abhi Clutch is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Abhi Clutch has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Abhi Clutch digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Abhi Clutch 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Abhi Clutch in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?, is just above the industry average. Abhi Clutch 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Abhi Clutch is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Abhi Clutch 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Abhi Clutch 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. Abhi Clutch 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Abhi Clutch 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Abhi Clutch, firm in the HBR case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Abhi Clutch is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Abhi Clutch needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Abhi Clutch to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Abhi Clutch 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 - Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Abhi Clutch 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity?, it seems that the employees of Abhi Clutch 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.
Opportunities Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? | 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Abhi Clutch can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Abhi Clutch operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Abhi Clutch 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Abhi Clutch to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Abhi Clutch can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Abhi Clutch 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 Abhi Clutch to increase its market reach. Abhi Clutch 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Abhi Clutch 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Abhi Clutch 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Abhi Clutch can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Abhi Clutch 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 Abhi Clutch to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Abhi Clutch in the consumer business. Now Abhi Clutch can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Abhi Clutch has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Abhi Clutch to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? case study. Abhi Clutch can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Abhi Clutch 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Abhi Clutch can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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.
Threats Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? are -
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 Abhi Clutch in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline 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. Abhi Clutch 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.
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 Abhi Clutch.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Abhi Clutch can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing wage structure of Abhi Clutch
– 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 Abhi Clutch.
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. Abhi Clutch can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Abhi Clutch 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Abhi Clutch with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Abhi Clutch 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Abhi Clutch 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Abhi Clutch 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.
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 Abhi Clutch business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Clutch Group: Should Abhi Shah Grab This Opportunity? 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 Abhi Clutch needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
