Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998
In August 1998, the partners of Columbia Capital in Arlington, Va. made a decision about whether or not to raise an outside fund for venture capital investing. Columbia had begun in 1988 as a boutique investment bank focused on the telecommunications industry, but had over its history become progressively more involved in making direct private equity investments; from 1994-98, the firm made over $100 million in such investments. Unlike traditional venture capital firms, however, Columbia made these investments entirely with its partners' own personal money.
Swot Analysis of "Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998" written by G. Felda Hardymon, Bill Wasik includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Columbia Investments facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Joint ventures, Venture capital and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Columbia Investments, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Columbia Investments
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 Columbia Investments
Strengths Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Columbia Investments in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Investments in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Columbia Investments in the sector have low bargaining power. Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Columbia Investments to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Columbia Investments has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Columbia Investments in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Columbia Investments
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Columbia Investments does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Columbia Investments 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 G. Felda Hardymon, Bill Wasik 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
- Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Investments is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Columbia Investments is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Columbia Investments has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Columbia Investments 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.
High brand equity
– Columbia Investments has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Columbia Investments to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998, it seems that the employees of Columbia Investments 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Columbia Investments 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Columbia Investments 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. Columbia Investments 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998, 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, G. Felda Hardymon, Bill Wasik suggests that, Columbia Investments 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Columbia Investments is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Columbia Investments 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Columbia Investments is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Columbia Investments supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Columbia Investments vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998, in the dynamic environment Columbia Investments has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Columbia Investments has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Columbia Investments, firm in the HBR case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 | 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Columbia Investments 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.
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. Columbia Investments can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Columbia Investments 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Columbia Investments can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Columbia Investments 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.
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 Columbia Investments in the consumer business. Now Columbia Investments can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Columbia Investments 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. Columbia Investments 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Columbia Investments to increase its market reach. Columbia Investments 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Columbia Investments 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Columbia Investments can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Columbia Investments operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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. Columbia Investments can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Columbia Investments to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Columbia Investments is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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.
Threats Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 are -
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. Columbia Investments 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.
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 Columbia Investments business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Columbia Investments with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Columbia Investments in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Columbia Investments 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 .
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 Columbia Investments.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Columbia Investments 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Columbia Investments is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Columbia Investments
– 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 Columbia Investments.
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. Columbia Investments needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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
– Columbia Investments can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Capital Corp.: Summer 1998 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 Columbia Investments needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
