James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story
Supplement to case IN1293. 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 (C): The Competitor's Story" 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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story
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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story | 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 (C): The Competitor's Story Harvard Business Review case study are -
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.
Learning organization
- Adlens Nation 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 Adlens Nation is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Adlens Nation 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
– 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Adlens Nation is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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.
Organizational Resilience of Adlens Nation
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Adlens Nation does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Adlens Nation has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Adlens Nation to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Adlens Nation is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story HBR case study mentions - Adlens Nation 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Adlens Nation 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Adlens Nation is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Adlens Nation 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. Adlens Nation 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story, 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.
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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Adlens Nation 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story, in the dynamic environment Adlens Nation has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Adlens Nation has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story | 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 (C): The Competitor's Story are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Adlens Nation 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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story case study. Adlens Nation can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Adlens Nation 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
– 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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story - 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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Adlens Nation in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for 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.
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.
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. Adlens Nation 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. Adlens Nation 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 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Adlens Nation 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.
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.
Threats James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story are -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Adlens Nation 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 James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Adlens Nation
– 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 Adlens Nation.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Adlens Nation 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.
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 (C): The Competitor's Story, 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Adlens Nation 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of James Chen's Entrepreneurial Odyssey (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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 (C): The Competitor's Story 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.
