Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup
A budding entrepreneur wants to start a mobile software company by developing a golf scoring and playing app called Golfgamez. He has assembled some raw data related to market size, as well as start-up and development costs, but is unsure how to proceed. He must evaluate the revenue and cost estimates for this business idea and prioritize the issues he faces. He must also consider the costs and benefits of available funding options, such as debt, equity or accelerator funding; crowdfunding; government grants; or sweat equity funding. Should he quit his successful career in banking to pursue his dream, should he try to do this part time and risk failure or should he give up altogether? Golfgamex (B): Funding a Digital Startup, 9B13M011, is the supplement to this case.
Swot Analysis of "Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup" written by Derrick Neufeld includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Funding Golfgamez facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Funding Golfgamez, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Funding Golfgamez 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Funding Golfgamez
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 Funding Golfgamez
Strengths Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Funding Golfgamez in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Funding Golfgamez 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Funding Golfgamez in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Funding Golfgamez
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Funding Golfgamez does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Funding Golfgamez 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 Derrick Neufeld 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Funding Golfgamez 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Funding Golfgamez is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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
– Funding Golfgamez is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Funding Golfgamez 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Funding Golfgamez to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Funding Golfgamez to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Funding Golfgamez has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Funding Golfgamez 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
– Funding Golfgamez 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 Funding Golfgamez in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup, is just above the industry average. Funding Golfgamez 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Funding Golfgamez 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Funding Golfgamez 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Funding Golfgamez 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. Funding Golfgamez 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Funding Golfgamez products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Funding Golfgamez needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Funding Golfgamez supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Funding Golfgamez vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup HBR case study mentions - Funding Golfgamez 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Funding Golfgamez has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Funding Golfgamez 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup, it seems that the employees of Funding Golfgamez 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.
Opportunities Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup | 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Funding Golfgamez to increase its market reach. Funding Golfgamez 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Funding Golfgamez has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Funding Golfgamez to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup case study. Funding Golfgamez can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Funding Golfgamez is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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.
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. Funding Golfgamez can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Funding Golfgamez 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.
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 Funding Golfgamez in the consumer business. Now Funding Golfgamez can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Funding Golfgamez 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Funding Golfgamez can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Funding Golfgamez 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 Funding Golfgamez to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Funding Golfgamez 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 Funding Golfgamez 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Funding Golfgamez can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Funding Golfgamez operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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. Funding Golfgamez 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. Funding Golfgamez 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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.
Environmental challenges
– Funding Golfgamez 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. Funding Golfgamez can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Funding Golfgamez 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Funding Golfgamez 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup .
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 Funding Golfgamez business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Funding Golfgamez
– 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 Funding Golfgamez.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Funding Golfgamez 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Funding Golfgamez needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
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. Funding Golfgamez can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Funding Golfgamez 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Funding Golfgamez with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Funding Golfgamez 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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 Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital Startup 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 Funding Golfgamez needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
