Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing?
Nickolay Lamm, a recent university graduate, has been interested in entrepreneurship since his childhood. After running two small start-ups as a teen, graduating with a marketing degree and being laid off from his first traditional job, he finds himself working as a freelance designer. His focus is on creating original visual representations of data that go viral. Nickolay's speculative illustration of a fashion doll based on the proportions of an average 19-year old American woman (referred to as "Normal Barbie" by online media) creates considerable market buzz. His "average is beautiful" doll concept is widely covered in online media channels including the Huffington Post, BBC Radio, Cosmopolitan, CNN, Good Morning America, MSN and Smithsonian. When Nickolay starts to receive requests from parents asking where they can purchase an actual physical "average" doll based on his visual representation, he asks himself a question: "Is this the entrepreneurial opportunity for which I've been waiting?" In the end, Nickolay has a decision to make: 1) explore the feasibility of a partnership with Mattel, Hasbro or another established player 2) launch his own company, either with business partners or by himself; or 3) wait for a better entrepreneurial opportunity to emerge...
Swot Analysis of "Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing?" written by Heidi M.J. Bertels, Michael S. Lehman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nickolay Doll facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Strategic planning and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nickolay Doll, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nickolay Doll 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nickolay Doll
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 Nickolay Doll
Strengths Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nickolay Doll in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Nickolay Doll 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 Nickolay Doll is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Nickolay Doll 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 Heidi M.J. Bertels, Michael S. Lehman 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Nickolay Doll is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nickolay Doll 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.
Training and development
– Nickolay Doll has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nickolay Doll 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? - 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
– Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nickolay Doll to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nickolay Doll to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nickolay Doll has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nickolay Doll 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nickolay Doll 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nickolay Doll in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nickolay Doll is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Nickolay Doll 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 Nickolay Doll in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nickolay Doll, firm in the HBR case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Heidi M.J. Bertels, Michael S. Lehman suggests that, Nickolay Doll 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nickolay Doll needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nickolay Doll 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. Nickolay Doll 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing?, in the dynamic environment Nickolay Doll has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nickolay Doll has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nickolay Doll products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nickolay Doll needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nickolay Doll is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nickolay Doll is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing?, it seems that the employees of Nickolay Doll 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nickolay Doll has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nickolay Doll 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.
Opportunities Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? | 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nickolay Doll 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nickolay Doll has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nickolay Doll to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? case study. Nickolay Doll can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nickolay Doll 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nickolay Doll can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Nickolay Doll in the consumer business. Now Nickolay Doll can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nickolay Doll 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nickolay Doll 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nickolay Doll is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Nickolay Doll 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nickolay Doll to increase its market reach. Nickolay Doll 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.
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. Nickolay Doll can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Nickolay Doll can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nickolay Doll 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nickolay Doll to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nickolay Doll with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Nickolay Doll 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 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nickolay Doll has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nickolay Doll 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.
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.
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 Nickolay Doll.
Increasing wage structure of Nickolay Doll
– 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 Nickolay Doll.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nickolay Doll 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.
Environmental challenges
– Nickolay Doll 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. Nickolay Doll can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nickolay Doll 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nickolay Doll 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? .
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. Nickolay Doll can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nickolay Doll 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Average is Beautiful: An Opportunity Worth Pursuing? 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 Nickolay Doll needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.