Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation
Most firms struggle to adapt to discontinuous changes in their environment--witness Lego's very slow adaptation to the world of digital devices and online games. One key reason for this is that they get locked into established networks of relationships and struggle to break out of these relationships and establish new ones. Examines the approaches firms can use to build relationships with new prospective partners that are more suited to the opportunities and threats they face in new competitive environments. Identifies the key barriers that prevent firms from accessing these "networks for discontinuous innovation" and presents specific strategies that firms can adopt to overcome them. The challenge involves three steps: finding the right partners to engage with, forming relationships with them, and then building high-performing networks. By following the guidelines proposed, firms will be more likely to create high-performing networks for discontinuous innovation.
Authors :: Julian Birkinshaw, John Bessant, Rick Delbridge
Swot Analysis of "Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation" written by Julian Birkinshaw, John Bessant, Rick Delbridge includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Discontinuous Networks facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Networking and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Discontinuous Networks, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Discontinuous Networks
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 Discontinuous Networks
Strengths Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Discontinuous Networks in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Discontinuous Networks 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 Julian Birkinshaw, John Bessant, Rick Delbridge 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.
High brand equity
– Discontinuous Networks has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Discontinuous Networks to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Discontinuous Networks in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Discontinuous Networks is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Discontinuous Networks to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Discontinuous Networks to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Discontinuous Networks is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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.
Organizational Resilience of Discontinuous Networks
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Discontinuous Networks does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Discontinuous Networks 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Discontinuous Networks is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Discontinuous Networks in the sector have low bargaining power. Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Discontinuous Networks to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation, 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.
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 Discontinuous Networks supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Discontinuous Networks vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Discontinuous Networks 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation, in the dynamic environment Discontinuous Networks has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Discontinuous Networks has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Discontinuous Networks is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Discontinuous Networks needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Discontinuous Networks to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation, is just above the industry average. Discontinuous Networks 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Discontinuous Networks, firm in the HBR case study Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Discontinuous Networks 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. Discontinuous Networks 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 Discontinuous Networks 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Discontinuous Networks products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Discontinuous Networks needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation | 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Discontinuous Networks 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Discontinuous Networks has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Discontinuous Networks to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation case study. Discontinuous Networks can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Discontinuous Networks 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.
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. Discontinuous Networks 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. Discontinuous Networks 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Discontinuous Networks can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Discontinuous Networks operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Discontinuous Networks 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Discontinuous Networks to increase its market reach. Discontinuous Networks 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Discontinuous Networks can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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
– Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Discontinuous Networks to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Discontinuous Networks 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Discontinuous Networks 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Discontinuous Networks 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.
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. Discontinuous Networks can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Discontinuous Networks 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 Discontinuous Networks 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.
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 Discontinuous Networks business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Discontinuous Networks in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Discontinuous Networks 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Discontinuous Networks is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Discontinuous Networks 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. Discontinuous Networks can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Discontinuous Networks 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation .
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. Discontinuous Networks 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
– Discontinuous Networks 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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 Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation 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 Discontinuous Networks needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
