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 - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, 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 -
Diverse revenue streams
– Adoption Collaboration is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform 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.
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.
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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Adoption Collaboration has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Adoption Collaboration 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)
– Adoption Collaboration 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 Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Adoption Collaboration in the sector have low bargaining power. Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Adoption Collaboration to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Adoption Collaboration 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, in the dynamic environment Adoption Collaboration has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Adoption Collaboration has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform HBR case study mentions - Adoption Collaboration 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Adoption Collaboration needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High 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 Adoption Collaboration supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Adoption Collaboration vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Luc Lesperance, Alina Dulipovici suggests that, Adoption Collaboration 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 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Adoption Collaboration has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Adoption Collaboration has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Adoption Collaboration to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform case study. Adoption Collaboration can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Adoption Collaboration in the consumer business. Now Adoption Collaboration can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Adoption Collaboration 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Adoption Collaboration 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Adoption Collaboration 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, Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Adoption Collaboration can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Adoption Collaboration to increase its market reach. Adoption Collaboration 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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward: Adopting a Collaboration Platform, Adoption Collaboration 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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
