Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World
This case centers on BV as it seeks to raise $20 million for its first standalone fund between 2014 and 2016. Wes Selke and Rick Moss, the two BV co-founders, had built their experience in impact investing when they founded and managed Hub Ventures (HV) (a smaller accelerator-type fund of $500,000) immediately prior to founding BV. Encouraged by the economic return and social impact from those early-stage, mission-driven HV investments, both Selke and Moss decided in late 2014 to raise a separate and much larger fund called Better Ventures Fund II (BVFII). This new fund would allow BV to make larger initial investments in its early stage portfolio companies and provide the needed capital to make add-on investments in subsequent financing rounds. The case discusses the challenges of raising capital for this new fund as well as BV's investment and impact theses, deal sourcing, and post-investment approach. The case eventually explores the next steps for BV, after successfully raising this first-time fund.
Swot Analysis of "Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World" written by Jennifer Walske, Laura D. Tyson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bv Fund facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise, Sustainability, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bv Fund, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bv Fund 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bv Fund
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 Bv Fund
Strengths Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bv Fund in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Bv Fund has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bv Fund 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bv Fund digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bv Fund 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bv Fund is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Bv Fund is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Bv Fund has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bv Fund to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Bv Fund 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 Bv Fund in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Bv Fund is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Bv Fund 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 Bv Fund is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bv Fund has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bv Fund 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bv Fund has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bv Fund has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World HBR case study mentions - Bv Fund 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World, is just above the industry average. Bv Fund 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bv Fund 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bv Fund 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. Bv Fund 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bv Fund is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Bv Fund needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bv Fund to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World, 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 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 Bv Fund supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bv Fund vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Bv Fund has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bv Fund, firm in the HBR case study Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bv Fund products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bv Fund needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bv Fund 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 - Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World | 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bv Fund 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bv Fund 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.
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 Bv Fund 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bv Fund can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bv Fund operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bv Fund 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
– Bv Fund 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Bv Fund 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.
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 Bv Fund in the consumer business. Now Bv Fund can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bv Fund has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bv Fund to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World case study. Bv Fund can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Bv Fund can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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.
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. Bv Fund can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bv Fund is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bv Fund 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Bv Fund.
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. Bv Fund can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bv Fund 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. Bv Fund needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Bv Fund 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bv Fund 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.
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 Bv Fund business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Bv Fund
– 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 Bv Fund.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bv Fund 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bv Fund 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World .
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 Bv Fund in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Better Ventures: Backing Entrepreneurs Building a Better World 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 Bv Fund needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
