Case Study Description of PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People
PremiumSoft had been a competitive player in the SQL software market for 10 years. Like many software companies, PremiumSoft's business model required that it continuously evolve its current successful product lines through research and development. At the core of the business was its creative people: they were the company's largest asset. PremiumSoft had created a team-centric, informal work environment that promoted creativity and innovation and attracted the best candidates. As a small company, PremiumSoft had a mix of formal and informal controls when dealing with recruiting, retention, roles, and responsibilities. It had achieved success with hiring, retaining, and managing its current employees and wanted to ensure that it could maintain this success with future growth. In 2010, PremiumSoft's owners were looking to grow the business through the development of new software. This growth required an expansion of its staff by 25 percent and the addition of a new product line.
Swot Analysis of "PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People" written by Neale O'Connor, April Yu, Melissa Moi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Growth strategy, Human resource management, Innovation, Motivating people, Performance measurement and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's
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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's
Strengths PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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.
Analytics focus
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 Neale O'Connor, April Yu, Melissa Moi 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People, it seems that the employees of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People, in the dynamic environment Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People | 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People are -
Loyalty marketing
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People case study. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
Threats PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People are -
Increasing wage structure of Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's
– 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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 .
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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's.
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. Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 PremiumSoft: Managing Creative People 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 Premiumsoft Premiumsoft's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
