Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa
Students play the role of Steve Papa, the CEO and founder of a venture-backed enterprise software company. In the challenging financing climate of the fall of 2001, he knows that two different groups are about to submit term sheets for his company's C-round. He is trying to decide what he should aim for in the ensuing negotiation. Presents the background of the company and the lengthy battle Steve fought just to get a term sheet. He has two months of cash left and a number of issues to consider, including a founding investor's request to change the terms of a previous round.
Authors :: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner, Ann Leamon
Swot Analysis of "Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa" written by G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner, Ann Leamon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Steve Papa facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Negotiations, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Steve Papa, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Steve Papa
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 Steve Papa
Strengths Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Steve Papa in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Steve Papa has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Steve Papa is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Steve Papa 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Steve Papa is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Steve Papa has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Steve Papa to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Steve Papa in the sector have low bargaining power. Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Steve Papa to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Steve Papa is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner, Ann Leamon can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Steve Papa digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Steve Papa 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
– Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Steve Papa to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Steve Papa to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa, it seems that the employees of Steve Papa 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa, in the dynamic environment Steve Papa has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Steve Papa has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Steve Papa is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Steve Papa is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Steve Papa needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Steve Papa to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa HBR case study mentions - Steve Papa 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Steve Papa 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Steve Papa products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Steve Papa needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Steve Papa 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. Steve Papa 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.
Opportunities Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa | 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Steve Papa 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.
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. Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Steve Papa 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, Steve Papa is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Steve Papa 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.
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. Steve Papa 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. Steve Papa 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Steve Papa has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Steve Papa to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa case study. Steve Papa can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Steve Papa 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Steve Papa can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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.
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 Steve Papa in the consumer business. Now Steve Papa can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Steve Papa 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.
Threats Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa are -
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. Steve Papa 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 wage structure of Steve Papa
– 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 Steve Papa.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Steve Papa 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. Steve Papa can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Steve Papa 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
– Steve Papa 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Steve Papa with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Steve Papa 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.
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 Steve Papa.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa, Steve Papa 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 .
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 Steve Papa business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Steve Papa has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Steve Papa 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Endeca Negotiation: Steve Papa 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 Steve Papa needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.