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WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause


On a mission to give "hope, chance and choice" to underprivileged students, Erwin Huang started the social enterprise WebOrganic to sell quality computers and internet services to students at below-market prices. In its first year of operation, the company had already served more than 7,000 low-income families, and had expanded from being a technology distributor to becoming a provider of a full-fledged service surrounding online learning. Now entering its second year, WebOrganic continues to face resistance from parents and educators in e-learning adoption as it introduces tablet computers to its product mix. This case is about creating a blue ocean in the overlapping zones of the computer and internet services retail market and a growing e-learning market. It explores ideas pertaining to the design and execution of a blue ocean strategy; including such topics such value innovation, the four actions framework and tipping point leadership. The case also touches on concepts of strategic relationship management and social entrepreneurship.

Authors :: Penny Lau, Julie Hung-Hsua Yu

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Leadership, Social enterprise, Supply chain, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause" written by Penny Lau, Julie Hung-Hsua Yu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Weborganic Ocean facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Social enterprise, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Weborganic Ocean, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Weborganic Ocean
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 Weborganic Ocean




Strengths WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Weborganic Ocean in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause Harvard Business Review case study are -

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Weborganic Ocean 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Weborganic Ocean is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry

– WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Weborganic Ocean to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Weborganic Ocean to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause - 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

– Weborganic Ocean 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 Penny Lau, Julie Hung-Hsua Yu 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Weborganic Ocean is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Weborganic Ocean is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Weborganic Ocean in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Weborganic Ocean has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Weborganic Ocean 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.

Training and development

– Weborganic Ocean has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Weborganic Ocean is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.






Weaknesses WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause are -

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 Weborganic Ocean 's lucrative customers.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, it seems that the employees of Weborganic Ocean 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, in the dynamic environment Weborganic Ocean has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Weborganic Ocean has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, is just above the industry average. Weborganic Ocean 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Weborganic Ocean products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Weborganic Ocean needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Weborganic Ocean has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Weborganic Ocean is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Weborganic Ocean needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Weborganic Ocean to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

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 Weborganic Ocean supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Weborganic Ocean vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Weborganic Ocean 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, Weborganic Ocean 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. Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, 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.




Opportunities WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause | 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause are -

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Weborganic Ocean 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Weborganic Ocean 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.

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. Weborganic Ocean can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Weborganic Ocean to increase its market reach. Weborganic Ocean 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 Weborganic Ocean 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Weborganic Ocean can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Weborganic Ocean operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Weborganic Ocean 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.

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. Weborganic Ocean can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Loyalty marketing

– Weborganic Ocean 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Weborganic Ocean 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, WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Weborganic Ocean 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 Weborganic Ocean to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Weborganic Ocean 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Weborganic Ocean to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.




Threats WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause are -

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 Weborganic Ocean business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause, Weborganic Ocean 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 Weborganic Ocean in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Weborganic Ocean in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

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.

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. Weborganic Ocean can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Weborganic Ocean has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Weborganic Ocean 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.

Environmental challenges

– Weborganic Ocean 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. Weborganic Ocean can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Weborganic Ocean is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Weborganic Ocean 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Weborganic Ocean 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Weborganic Ocean 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Weborganic Ocean 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 WebOrganic: Creating a Blue Ocean for a Social Cause 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 Weborganic Ocean needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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