Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation
The prevailing geographic model for high-technology industrial organization has been the "nerdistan," a sprawling, car-oriented suburb organized around office parks. This seems to contradict a basic insight of urban theory, which associates dense urban centers with higher levels of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. This article examines the geography of recent venture capital finance startups across U.S. metros and within a subset of them by neighborhood. It concludes that the model is changing. The suburban model might have been an historical aberration, and innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship are realigning in the same urban centers that traditionally fostered them.
Swot Analysis of "Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation" written by Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Urban Geography facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Urban Geography, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Urban Geography 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Urban Geography
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 Urban Geography
Strengths Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Urban Geography in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Urban Geography has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Urban Geography to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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.
Organizational Resilience of Urban Geography
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Urban Geography 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 Urban Geography in the sector have low bargaining power. Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Urban Geography to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Urban Geography 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 Urban Geography in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Urban Geography in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Urban Geography 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 Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Urban Geography is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Urban Geography 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 Urban Geography digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Urban Geography 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.
Learning organization
- Urban Geography 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 Urban Geography is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Urban Geography to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Urban Geography to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Urban Geography 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 - Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Urban Geography supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Urban Geography vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Urban Geography is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation HBR case study mentions - Urban Geography 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Urban Geography is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Urban Geography needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Urban Geography to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, it seems that the employees of Urban Geography 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Urban Geography has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, is just above the industry average. Urban Geography 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Urban Geography has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Urban Geography is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation | 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Urban Geography has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Urban Geography to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation case study. Urban Geography can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Urban Geography can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Urban Geography can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Urban Geography 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.
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 Urban Geography 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Urban Geography 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Urban Geography can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Urban Geography 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.
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. Urban Geography 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. Urban Geography 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Urban Geography 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 Urban Geography to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Urban Geography 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Urban Geography to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Urban Geography can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Urban Geography operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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 Urban Geography in the consumer business. Now Urban Geography can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Urban Geography is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Urban Geography
– 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 Urban Geography.
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.
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 Urban Geography business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Urban Geography has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Urban Geography 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation, Urban Geography 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 .
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. Urban Geography 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.
Environmental challenges
– Urban Geography 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. Urban Geography can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Urban Geography needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Urban Geography 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.
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. Urban Geography can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Urban Geography 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Rise of the Startup City: The Changing Geography of the Venture Capital Financed Innovation 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 Urban Geography needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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