Case Study Description of CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust
In March 2000, CaseTrust, an accreditation scheme designed to promote consumer confidence in Web-based retailers, was in the third year of implementation in Singapore. The plan was to extend CaseTrust's success to other countries. However, this raised a number of issues with regards to the legal framework required, CaseTrust's marketing and branding strategy, technical issues relating to security, and cultural factors. This case seeks to draw out the learning experience in Singapore as to what builds trust in the B2C marketspace and to apply these to CaseTrust's strategy for other countries.
Authors :: Ali F. Farhoomand, Pauline Ng, Shamza Khan
Swot Analysis of "CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust" written by Ali F. Farhoomand, Pauline Ng, Shamza Khan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Casetrust's Casetrust facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, 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, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Casetrust's Casetrust, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Casetrust's Casetrust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Casetrust's Casetrust
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 Casetrust's Casetrust
Strengths CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Casetrust's Casetrust in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Casetrust's Casetrust is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Casetrust's Casetrust digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Casetrust's Casetrust are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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 Casetrust's Casetrust in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Casetrust's Casetrust is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Casetrust's Casetrust has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Casetrust's Casetrust in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Casetrust's Casetrust is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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.
Training and development
– Casetrust's Casetrust has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Casetrust's Casetrust
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Casetrust's Casetrust does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Casetrust's Casetrust has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Casetrust's Casetrust to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust are -
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 Casetrust's Casetrust supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Casetrust's Casetrust vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Casetrust's Casetrust is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Casetrust's Casetrust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust, in the dynamic environment Casetrust's Casetrust has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Casetrust's Casetrust has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Casetrust's Casetrust 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. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ali F. Farhoomand, Pauline Ng, Shamza Khan suggests that, Casetrust's Casetrust 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, Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Casetrust's Casetrust 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 - CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 Casetrust's Casetrust 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust, is just above the industry average. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Opportunities CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust | 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust are -
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Casetrust's Casetrust to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Manufacturing automation
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
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. Casetrust's Casetrust can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Casetrust's Casetrust has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Casetrust's Casetrust to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust case study. Casetrust's Casetrust can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Casetrust's Casetrust to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Casetrust's Casetrust can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Loyalty marketing
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Casetrust's Casetrust 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 Casetrust's Casetrust to increase its market reach. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
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. Casetrust's Casetrust 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
– Casetrust's Casetrust can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Threats CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Casetrust's Casetrust is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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. Casetrust's Casetrust can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Casetrust's Casetrust with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
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. Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Increasing wage structure of Casetrust's Casetrust
– 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 Casetrust's Casetrust.
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 Casetrust's Casetrust business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Casetrust's Casetrust 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust, Casetrust's Casetrust may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Casetrust's Casetrust in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 CaseTrust: Building Third-Party e-Tailing Trust 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 Casetrust's Casetrust needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
