Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version
Describes the issues facing a founder-CEO regarding building a board of directors, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing system development work.
Swot Analysis of "Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version" written by Noam Wasserman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Razor's Ockham facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations, Operations management, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Razor's Ockham, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Razor's Ockham 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Razor's Ockham
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 Razor's Ockham
Strengths Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Razor's Ockham in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Razor's Ockham 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Razor's Ockham in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Razor's Ockham has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Razor's Ockham 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Razor's Ockham in the sector have low bargaining power. Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Razor's Ockham to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Razor's Ockham is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Razor's Ockham 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 Razor's Ockham in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Razor's Ockham 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.
Learning organization
- Razor's Ockham 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 Razor's Ockham is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Razor's Ockham has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Razor's Ockham to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Razor's Ockham to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Razor's Ockham to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Razor's Ockham is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Razor's Ockham needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Razor's Ockham to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Razor's Ockham is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Razor's Ockham 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Razor's Ockham 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
Razor's Ockham 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Razor's Ockham 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Razor's Ockham 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Razor's Ockham 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.
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 Razor's Ockham supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Razor's Ockham vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Razor's Ockham 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Razor's Ockham 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 - Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version | 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Razor's Ockham 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.
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. Razor's Ockham can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Razor's Ockham 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Razor's Ockham to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Razor's Ockham 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. Razor's Ockham 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Razor's Ockham can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Razor's Ockham 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Razor's Ockham can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Razor's Ockham 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Razor's Ockham is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Razor's Ockham 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Razor's Ockham 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 Razor's Ockham 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 Razor's Ockham in the consumer business. Now Razor's Ockham can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Razor's Ockham can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version are -
Environmental challenges
– Razor's Ockham 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. Razor's Ockham can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Razor's Ockham 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Razor's Ockham is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Razor's Ockham 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version .
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Razor's Ockham 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Razor's Ockham 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.
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 Razor's Ockham.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Razor's Ockham with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Razor's Ockham 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.
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 Razor's Ockham in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Razor's Ockham
– 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 Razor's Ockham.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version, Razor's Ockham may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Ockham Technologies: Living on the Razor's Edge, Spanish Version 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 Razor's Ockham needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.