Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer
Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, Formlabs manufactures 3D printers used to print everything from prototypes and models to jewelry, dental, and sculpture molds. As Formlabs prepares to ship its latest model, the Form 2, Head of Customer Development and Services Luke Winston wonders which strategy will double sales. Should he focus on direct sales or add more channel partners?
Authors :: Frank V. Cespedes, Olivia Hull, Amram Migdal
Swot Analysis of "Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer" written by Frank V. Cespedes, Olivia Hull, Amram Migdal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Formlabs 3d facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial management, Growth strategy, Product development, Sales, Technology and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Formlabs 3d, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Formlabs 3d
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 Formlabs 3d
Strengths Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Formlabs 3d in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Formlabs 3d in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Formlabs 3d has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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.
Learning organization
- Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs 3d is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Formlabs 3d in the sector have low bargaining power. Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Formlabs 3d to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Formlabs 3d 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 Frank V. Cespedes, Olivia Hull, Amram Migdal can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Formlabs 3d is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Formlabs 3d digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Formlabs 3d 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Formlabs 3d to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Formlabs 3d to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Formlabs 3d is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frank V. Cespedes, Olivia Hull, Amram Migdal suggests that, Formlabs 3d 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Formlabs 3d 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Formlabs 3d has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Formlabs 3d 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Formlabs 3d 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 - Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer HBR case study mentions - Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer, is just above the industry average. Formlabs 3d 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer, in the dynamic environment Formlabs 3d has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Formlabs 3d has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer, 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer, it seems that the employees of Formlabs 3d 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Formlabs 3d is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer | 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Formlabs 3d to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Formlabs 3d 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Formlabs 3d 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Formlabs 3d 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Formlabs 3d can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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.
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. Formlabs 3d 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. Formlabs 3d 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Formlabs 3d can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Formlabs 3d can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Formlabs 3d 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Formlabs 3d to increase its market reach. Formlabs 3d will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Loyalty marketing
– Formlabs 3d 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.
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. Formlabs 3d can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Formlabs 3d can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Formlabs 3d operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Threats Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer are -
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 Formlabs 3d business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Formlabs 3d can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Formlabs 3d with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Formlabs 3d 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Formlabs 3d 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
– Formlabs 3d 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. Formlabs 3d 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. Formlabs 3d needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Formlabs 3d 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Formlabs 3d is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Formlabs 3d in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Formlabs 3d has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Formlabs 3d 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Formlabs 3d 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer 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 Formlabs 3d needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.