BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves
Developed in 1995 as a specialist software vendor, BEA Systems, Inc. had already transformed itself twice from a transaction processing product company to a server application provider. By July 2002, it had become the fastest company in history to reach $1 billion in revenues. Formidable competitors such as IBM and Microsoft, however, made BEA's market a key strategic priority. At the same time, the power and potential of the enterprise computing industry seemed to present BEA with a new opportunity: to become an enterprise platform partner. Its biggest challenge was to rebuild its organization one more time to match the opportunity.
Authors :: Donald N. Sull, Jeannette Dale, Ramiro Montealegre
Swot Analysis of "BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves" written by Donald N. Sull, Jeannette Dale, Ramiro Montealegre includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bea Bea's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Entrepreneurship, Growth strategy, Internet, IT, Joint ventures, Leadership, Organizational culture and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bea Bea's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bea Bea'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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bea Bea'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 Bea Bea's
Strengths BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bea Bea's in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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
– Bea Bea'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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Bea Bea's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bea Bea's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Bea Bea'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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bea Bea'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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bea Bea's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bea Bea's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Bea Bea's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bea Bea's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bea Bea's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Bea Bea's 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 Donald N. Sull, Jeannette Dale, Ramiro Montealegre 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Bea Bea's 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 Bea Bea's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Bea Bea's 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 Bea Bea's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bea Bea's has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves, it seems that the employees of Bea Bea'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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves, is just above the industry average. Bea Bea'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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 Bea Bea's 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves, in the dynamic environment Bea Bea's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bea Bea's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Bea Bea'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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 Bea Bea's 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, Bea Bea's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bea Bea'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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bea Bea'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 - BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves | 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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves are -
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. Bea Bea'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 Bea Bea'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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bea Bea'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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bea Bea's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Bea Bea'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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bea Bea'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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bea Bea's to increase its market reach. Bea Bea'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.
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. Bea Bea's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bea Bea's 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. Bea Bea'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. Bea Bea'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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bea Bea's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bea Bea's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves case study. Bea Bea's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bea Bea's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bea Bea's 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.
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 Bea Bea's in the consumer business. Now Bea Bea's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bea Bea's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bea Bea'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.
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
– Bea Bea'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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bea Bea's demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves, Bea Bea'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. Bea Bea's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Bea Bea's.
Environmental challenges
– Bea Bea'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. Bea Bea's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Bea Bea'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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bea Bea's 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 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. Bea Bea's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Bea Bea's
– 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 Bea Bea's.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves 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 Bea Bea's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
