Case Study Description of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens
This three-part case study explores the development of Adlens, a commercial firm, and Vision for a Nation as the social venture developed in parallel. The entrepreneur's strategy is to sell the innovative Adlens optical products in middle-to-high income economies for profit, while Vision for a Nation is dedicated to improving vision in the developing world, starting with Rwanda. A key synergy comes from the "Buy one, give one" model, whereby for every pair of Adlens glasses purchased, another pair (adjustable or traditional glasses) is given away for free in Rwanda. Developing Adlens and Vision for a Nation as viable ventures has been not been an easy task. Despite the vast amount of time and money James Chen has invested in these projects, their long-term sustainability has yet to be demonstrated. But as an investor of 'patient capital', he sees beyond the logic of short-term profit making.
Swot Analysis of "James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens" written by Randel Carlock, Elin Williams includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Adlens Nation facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, International business and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Adlens Nation, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Adlens Nation
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 Adlens Nation
Strengths James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Adlens Nation in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Adlens Nation is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Adlens Nation in the sector have low bargaining power. James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Adlens Nation to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Adlens Nation is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Adlens Nation 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 Randel Carlock, Elin Williams 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Adlens Nation is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Adlens Nation to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Adlens Nation to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Adlens Nation has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Adlens Nation 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 Adlens Nation 's lucrative customers.
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 Adlens Nation supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 Adlens Nation has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Adlens Nation 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Adlens Nation is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Adlens Nation needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Adlens Nation to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Adlens Nation is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Randel Carlock, Elin Williams suggests that, Adlens Nation 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Adlens Nation 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 - James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens, it seems that the employees of Adlens Nation 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Adlens Nation, firm in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Adlens Nation products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Adlens Nation needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens | 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Adlens Nation to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Adlens Nation 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Adlens Nation is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Adlens Nation 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Adlens Nation can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Adlens Nation can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Adlens Nation 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. Adlens Nation can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Adlens Nation can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation in the consumer business. Now Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Adlens Nation to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens case study. Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation 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.
Threats James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens are -
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 Adlens Nation business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Adlens Nation 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.
Environmental challenges
– Adlens Nation 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. Adlens Nation can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Adlens Nation 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.
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 Adlens Nation with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Adlens Nation needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Adlens Nation 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Adlens Nation has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Adlens Nation 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.
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 Adlens Nation.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens, Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Adlens Nation 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (A): Adlens 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 Adlens Nation needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
