Case Study Description of Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream
The Vermeer team works day and night to develop its software offering, unforeseen difficulties and internal tensions notwithstanding. In less than a year, the product is ready. The Vermeer team waits anxiously for the market to pronounce its verdict.
Swot Analysis of "Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream" written by Ashish Nanda, Georgia Levenson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vermeer Pronounce facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational structure, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vermeer Pronounce, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vermeer Pronounce
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 Vermeer Pronounce
Strengths Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vermeer Pronounce in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Vermeer Pronounce has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vermeer Pronounce to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vermeer Pronounce are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vermeer Pronounce is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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.
Training and development
– Vermeer Pronounce has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Vermeer Pronounce is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Vermeer Pronounce
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vermeer Pronounce does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vermeer Pronounce in the sector have low bargaining power. Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vermeer Pronounce to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Pronounce is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Vermeer Pronounce is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Vermeer Pronounce digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vermeer Pronounce to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vermeer Pronounce to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream, in the dynamic environment Vermeer Pronounce has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Vermeer Pronounce has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream HBR case study mentions - Vermeer Pronounce 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ashish Nanda, Georgia Levenson suggests that, Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Vermeer Pronounce is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Vermeer Pronounce needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Vermeer Pronounce to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Vermeer Pronounce 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. Vermeer Pronounce 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Pronounce has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vermeer Pronounce is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vermeer Pronounce is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Vermeer Pronounce products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vermeer Pronounce needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Pronounce 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream | 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Pronounce to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Vermeer Pronounce can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vermeer Pronounce to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vermeer Pronounce has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vermeer Pronounce to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream case study. Vermeer Pronounce can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Vermeer Pronounce can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
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. Vermeer Pronounce can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vermeer Pronounce 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, Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vermeer Pronounce to increase its market reach. Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Threats Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream are -
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 Vermeer Pronounce.
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. Vermeer Pronounce needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Vermeer Pronounce
– 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 Vermeer Pronounce.
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. Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vermeer Pronounce 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vermeer Pronounce is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. Vermeer Pronounce can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Vermeer Pronounce 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Vermeer Pronounce with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Technologies (B): Realizing the Dream 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 Vermeer Pronounce needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.