Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform
According to recent studies by Gartner Group, best practices for a successful adoption of collaboration technologies are still unknown. This case describes the difficult adoption of such a technology within an organization, and the approach used to analyze and diagnose the weaknesses of the process so as to correct the situation. In the case, a step back is taken so as to better understand the organizational, social, cultural and technological context of a collaboration technology and to make a more informed decision about the management practices to be implemented to support its adoption.
Swot Analysis of "Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform" written by Luc Lesperance, Alina Dulipovici includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Adoption Collaboration facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Collaboration, IT and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Adoption Collaboration, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Adoption Collaboration 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Adoption Collaboration
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 Adoption Collaboration
Strengths Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Adoption Collaboration in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Adoption Collaboration 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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
– Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Adoption Collaboration to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Adoption Collaboration to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Adoption Collaboration 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 Adoption Collaboration in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Adoption Collaboration in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Adoption Collaboration digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Adoption Collaboration 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.
Training and development
– Adoption Collaboration has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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.
Organizational Resilience of Adoption Collaboration
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Adoption Collaboration does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Adoption Collaboration is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Adoption Collaboration 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 Adoption Collaboration is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Adoption Collaboration 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 Luc Lesperance, Alina Dulipovici 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Adoption Collaboration is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Adoption Collaboration has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Adoption Collaboration to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Adoption Collaboration has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Adoption Collaboration products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Adoption Collaboration needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, it seems that the employees of Adoption Collaboration 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Adoption Collaboration, firm in the HBR case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Adoption Collaboration 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 - Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Adoption Collaboration 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Adoption Collaboration 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Adoption Collaboration 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Adoption Collaboration is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Adoption Collaboration is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform | 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Adoption Collaboration 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Adoption Collaboration 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Adoption Collaboration can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Adoption Collaboration 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Adoption Collaboration 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.
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. Adoption Collaboration can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Adoption Collaboration 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Adoption Collaboration 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 Adoption Collaboration to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Adoption Collaboration can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Adoption Collaboration 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Adoption Collaboration to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Adoption Collaboration is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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.
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 Adoption Collaboration 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Adoption Collaboration can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Adoption Collaboration operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Threats Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform are -
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Adoption Collaboration needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Adoption Collaboration with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Adoption Collaboration is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Adoption Collaboration 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 Adoption Collaboration
– 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 Adoption Collaboration.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Adoption Collaboration 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.
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 Adoption Collaboration.
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. Adoption Collaboration can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Adoption Collaboration 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.
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 Adoption Collaboration in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Adoption Collaboration 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. Adoption Collaboration 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.
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 Adoption Collaboration business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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 Adoption Collaboration needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.