Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to established markets. For each of several research techniques, specifies conditions under which the technique is most likely to yield valuable insights; describes how the technique should be adapted for use in an entrepreneurial context; and offers tips and cautions about applying the technique. The techniques include customer surveys, usability tests, market trials, split tests, and Net Promoter Score. Appendices discuss the use of focus groups and conjoint analysis in an entrepreneurial context. The Note is therefore suitable for use in MBA, Executive Education, Field Study, or project contexts where the focus is startups, new business development, product development, or innovation.
Authors :: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Steven G. Blank
Swot Analysis of "Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs" written by Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Steven G. Blank includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Technique Entrepreneurial facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Market research, Sales, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Technique Entrepreneurial, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Technique Entrepreneurial
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 Technique Entrepreneurial
Strengths Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Technique Entrepreneurial in Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Technique Entrepreneurial is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Steven G. Blank 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Technique Entrepreneurial in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Technique Entrepreneurial digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Technique Entrepreneurial is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Technique Entrepreneurial in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Technique Entrepreneurial is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Technique Entrepreneurial to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Technique Entrepreneurial to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Technique Entrepreneurial is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Technique Entrepreneurial has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Technique Entrepreneurial to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Technique Entrepreneurial products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Technique Entrepreneurial needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Technique Entrepreneurial is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Technique Entrepreneurial needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Technique Entrepreneurial to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs HBR case study mentions - Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Technique Entrepreneurial is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Steven G. Blank suggests that, Technique Entrepreneurial is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Technique Entrepreneurial has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs, is just above the industry average. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Technique Entrepreneurial 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. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Opportunities Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs | 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Technique Entrepreneurial to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Technique Entrepreneurial can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Technique Entrepreneurial operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
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. Technique Entrepreneurial 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. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Technique Entrepreneurial has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Technique Entrepreneurial to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs case study. Technique Entrepreneurial can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Technique Entrepreneurial to increase its market reach. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Technique Entrepreneurial can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Technique Entrepreneurial can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Technique Entrepreneurial to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Threats Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs are -
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
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
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 Technique Entrepreneurial in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Technique Entrepreneurial has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs, Technique Entrepreneurial 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 .
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. Technique Entrepreneurial can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Technique Entrepreneurial with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Technique Entrepreneurial 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Technique Entrepreneurial 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Technique Entrepreneurial is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs 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 Technique Entrepreneurial needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.