Swot Analysis of "Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem" written by Lynda M. Applegate, Alexander Meyer, Talia Varley includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ashes Chicago's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ashes Chicago's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ashes Chicago's 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ashes Chicago's
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 Ashes Chicago's
Strengths Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ashes Chicago's in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ashes Chicago's 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ashes Chicago's 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ashes Chicago's 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Ashes Chicago's 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 Ashes Chicago's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Ashes Chicago's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ashes Chicago's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Ashes Chicago's 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 Ashes Chicago's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ashes Chicago's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ashes Chicago's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ashes Chicago's in the sector have low bargaining power. Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ashes Chicago's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Ashes Chicago's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ashes Chicago's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ashes Chicago's 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.
Weaknesses Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem HBR case study mentions - Ashes Chicago's 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, is just above the industry average. Ashes Chicago's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ashes Chicago's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ashes Chicago's 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 - Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ashes Chicago's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, it seems that the employees of Ashes Chicago's 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.
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 Ashes Chicago's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ashes Chicago's 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, Ashes Chicago's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ashes Chicago's 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ashes Chicago's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ashes Chicago's, firm in the HBR case study Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem | 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem are -
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 Ashes Chicago's in the consumer business. Now Ashes Chicago's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ashes Chicago's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ashes Chicago's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem case study. Ashes Chicago's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ashes Chicago's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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.
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. Ashes Chicago's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ashes Chicago's to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Ashes Chicago's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ashes Chicago's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ashes Chicago's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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 Ashes Chicago's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ashes Chicago's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ashes Chicago's can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ashes Chicago's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ashes Chicago's to increase its market reach. Ashes Chicago's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ashes Chicago's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ashes Chicago's 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem are -
Environmental challenges
– Ashes Chicago's 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. Ashes Chicago's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ashes Chicago's 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. Ashes Chicago's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ashes Chicago's 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.
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 Ashes Chicago's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Ashes Chicago's.
Increasing wage structure of Ashes Chicago's
– 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 Ashes Chicago's.
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. Ashes Chicago's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ashes Chicago's 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem .
Regulatory challenges
– Ashes Chicago's 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.
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 Ashes Chicago's in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ashes Chicago's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ashes Chicago's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Rising From the Ashes: The Emergence of Chicago's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 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 Ashes Chicago's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
