Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game
University of California, Berkeley-Haas collectionAlex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh founded Zoosk in 2007 and by 2012, the company had reached over $100 million in revenue. The Zoosk case study provides an overview of the company's short history, paying particular attention to the founding of the company and to its growth. The main case study objective is to teach students how to analyze a startup's go-to-market strategy and to discuss a startup's ability to pivot as one of its drivers of success. Entrepreneurs (and students) often do not realize the myriad of decisions that must be made in order to go to market with their product or service. What are these decisions and how can a startup identify them and organize them? Importantly, a startup's go-to-market strategy is not static, as can be seen in the case of Zoosk. The backdrop of social media and the opening of the Facebook platform make this an especially rich case that offers several opportunities to discuss various options that any startup company has.
Swot Analysis of "Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game" written by Naeem Zafar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Zoosk Startup's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Innovation, International business, Internet, Marketing, Pricing and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zoosk Startup's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zoosk Startup's
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 Zoosk Startup's
Strengths Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zoosk Startup's in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Zoosk Startup's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's in the sector have low bargaining power. Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Zoosk Startup's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Zoosk Startup's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Zoosk Startup's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Zoosk Startup's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Zoosk Startup's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Zoosk Startup's 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.
High brand equity
– Zoosk Startup's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Zoosk Startup's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Zoosk Startup's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Zoosk Startup's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, it seems that the employees of Zoosk Startup's 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Zoosk Startup's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk Startup's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Zoosk Startup's 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 - Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game HBR case study mentions - Zoosk Startup's takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk Startup's 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, is just above the industry average. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Zoosk Startup's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Zoosk Startup's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Zoosk Startup's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, 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.
Opportunities Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game | 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Zoosk Startup's to increase its market reach. Zoosk Startup's 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.
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. Zoosk Startup's 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. Zoosk Startup's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Zoosk Startup's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zoosk Startup's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Zoosk Startup's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Zoosk Startup's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game case study. Zoosk Startup's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Zoosk Startup's 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, Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Zoosk Startup's 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Zoosk Startup's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zoosk Startup's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Zoosk Startup's in the consumer business. Now Zoosk Startup's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk Startup's 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game are -
Regulatory challenges
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game, Zoosk Startup's 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 .
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. Zoosk Startup's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Zoosk Startup's in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zoosk Startup's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Zoosk Startup's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Zoosk Startup's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zoosk Startup's 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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Zoosk Startup's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Zoosk Startup's 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. Zoosk Startup's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Zoosk Startup's 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. Zoosk Startup's 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game 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 Zoosk Startup's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.