Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance
This case describes the innovative business model of Better Place Inc., an electric vehicle company. The key challenges in operating the business model are explained and data is provided to help compute the costs, benefits, net profitability and economies of scale that it offers.
Swot Analysis of "Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance" written by Karan Girotra, Prash Pokala, Disha Gupta, Serguei Netessine includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Electric Vehicle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Supply chain, Venture capital and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Electric Vehicle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Electric Vehicle 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Electric Vehicle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Electric Vehicle
Strengths Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Electric Vehicle in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Electric Vehicle 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Electric Vehicle 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Electric Vehicle has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Electric Vehicle 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Electric Vehicle to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Electric Vehicle to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Electric Vehicle in the sector have low bargaining power. Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Electric Vehicle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Electric Vehicle is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Electric Vehicle
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Electric Vehicle does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Electric Vehicle is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Electric Vehicle 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 Karan Girotra, Prash Pokala, Disha Gupta, Serguei Netessine 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.
Weaknesses Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Electric Vehicle 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 - Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Electric Vehicle is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Electric Vehicle needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Electric Vehicle to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Electric Vehicle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Electric Vehicle 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. Electric Vehicle 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance HBR case study mentions - Electric Vehicle 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Electric Vehicle is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance, is just above the industry average. Electric Vehicle 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Electric Vehicle 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Electric Vehicle needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Karan Girotra, Prash Pokala, Disha Gupta, Serguei Netessine suggests that, Electric Vehicle 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.
Opportunities Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance | 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Electric Vehicle can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Electric Vehicle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Electric Vehicle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Electric Vehicle can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Electric Vehicle can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Electric Vehicle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Electric Vehicle 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Electric Vehicle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle to increase its market reach. Electric Vehicle 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Electric Vehicle 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, Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Electric Vehicle to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
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 Electric Vehicle in the consumer business. Now Electric Vehicle 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 Electric Vehicle in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Electric Vehicle 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.
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 Electric Vehicle 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Electric Vehicle with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Electric Vehicle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Electric Vehicle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Electric Vehicle 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.
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. Electric Vehicle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Electric Vehicle is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Electric Vehicle 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. Electric Vehicle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Electric Vehicle can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Electric Vehicle 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance, Electric Vehicle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Better Place: The Electric Vehicle Renaissance 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 Electric Vehicle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
