Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band
The three founding members of The Mammals--Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Ruth Ungar, and Mike Merenda--were facing a major decision. In the year just ending, the string band specializing in folk rock music had played over 160 concerts, earning approximately $100,000 in gross revenues but leaving little time to write or prepare new music. Signature Sounds Records had offered the group a recording contract. They needed to decide whether to accept the record deal and leverage Signature Sounds' financial and marketing resources or to remain independent. Would the record label want them to tone down their sometimes-controversial songs and compromise their artistic values? They also had questions as to the role of their two backup musicians, Mike's brother and a childhood friend. Should they join The Mammals on a permanent basis? The case presents information on the music industry in general and the folk segment in particular.
Authors :: Michael J. Merenda, William Naumes, Margaret J. Naumes
Swot Analysis of "Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band" written by Michael J. Merenda, William Naumes, Margaret J. Naumes includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mammals Music facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, IT, Leading teams, Risk management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mammals Music, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mammals Music 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mammals Music
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 Mammals Music
Strengths Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mammals Music in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mammals Music is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mammals Music is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mammals Music in the sector have low bargaining power. Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mammals Music to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Mammals Music has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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
– Mammals Music 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Mammals Music is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mammals Music to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mammals Music to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Mammals Music 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 Mammals Music is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mammals Music has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mammals Music 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mammals Music 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mammals Music 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.
Weaknesses Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mammals Music 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band, it seems that the employees of Mammals Music 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band, in the dynamic environment Mammals Music has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mammals Music 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, Mammals Music 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. Mammals Music 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mammals Music 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mammals Music is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mammals Music is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mammals Music 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mammals Music products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mammals Music needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mammals Music 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band, 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band | 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mammals Music to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mammals Music in the consumer business. Now Mammals Music can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mammals Music 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.
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. Mammals Music 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. Mammals Music 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
– Mammals Music 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mammals Music 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, Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Mammals Music can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mammals Music 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. Mammals Music can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mammals Music 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mammals Music 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.
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 Mammals Music 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
– Mammals Music 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.
Threats Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band are -
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. Mammals Music can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mammals Music is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mammals Music with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mammals Music 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mammals Music 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band, Mammals Music 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 .
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 Mammals Music business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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.
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 Mammals Music in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mammals Music 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 wage structure of Mammals Music
– 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 Mammals Music.
Regulatory challenges
– Mammals Music 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mammals Music can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Humble Abode Music and The Mammals: Not Your Grandpa's String Band 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 Mammals Music needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.