KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?
Nik Nesbitt is preparing a presentation of his Kenyan contact center startup to a group of angel investors visiting for the first time. The task has given him cause for some soul searching: has it been worth it to battle the impoverished infrastructure and inappropriate government regulations to launch this venture?
Swot Analysis of "KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?" written by Daniel J. Isenberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nik Kencall facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nik Kencall, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nik Kencall 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nik Kencall
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 Nik Kencall
Strengths KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nik Kencall in KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Nik Kencall has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nik Kencall 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Nik Kencall has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nik Kencall to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nik Kencall is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nik Kencall 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nik Kencall in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Nik Kencall
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nik Kencall 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 Nik Kencall in the sector have low bargaining power. KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nik Kencall to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Nik Kencall 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 Nik Kencall in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nik Kencall to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nik Kencall to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nik Kencall digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nik Kencall 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Nik Kencall is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nik Kencall 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 - KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?, is just above the industry average. Nik Kencall 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nik Kencall 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nik Kencall is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 Nik Kencall 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Daniel J. Isenberg suggests that, Nik Kencall 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.
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 Nik Kencall supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nik Kencall vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nik Kencall has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 Nik Kencall has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Nik Kencall 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nik Kencall 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. Nik Kencall 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? | 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nik Kencall can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nik Kencall operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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. Nik Kencall can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Nik Kencall in the consumer business. Now Nik Kencall can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nik Kencall can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Nik Kencall 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 Nik Kencall to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nik Kencall 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nik Kencall 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 Nik Kencall has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nik Kencall to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? case study. Nik Kencall can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Nik Kencall to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nik Kencall 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.
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. Nik Kencall 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. Nik Kencall 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nik Kencall 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nik Kencall to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nik Kencall 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.
Threats KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nik Kencall 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nik Kencall 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.
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 Nik Kencall with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Nik Kencall.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nik Kencall 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? .
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. Nik Kencall needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nik Kencall has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nik Kencall 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.
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. Nik Kencall 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nik Kencall 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.
Increasing wage structure of Nik Kencall
– 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 Nik Kencall.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?, Nik Kencall 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 .
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 Nik Kencall in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya? 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 Nik Kencall needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
