An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas
A novice entrepreneur and a strong believer in ethical business practice has tried to build a family-oriented culture in his business process outsourcing company. However, although he created a friendly atmosphere, he still faced performance and attrition issues. The company grew in size and financial worth but the entrepreneur persisted in looking for better opportunities for a new business venture. He developed the idea of a new e-commerce venture that would sell Chinese products online. Juggling human capital risks and entrepreneurial exit, he had to consider the merits of his decision and determine whether to leverage the same team or hire a dedicated team for his new venture. Anshu Sharma is affiliated with Management Development Institute.
Swot Analysis of "An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas" written by Anshu Sharma, Jyotsna Bhatnagar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Exit Anshu facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Leadership, Organizational culture, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Exit Anshu, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Exit Anshu 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Exit Anshu
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 Exit Anshu
Strengths An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Exit Anshu in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Exit Anshu
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Exit Anshu does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Exit Anshu in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Exit Anshu 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 Exit Anshu in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Exit Anshu 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Exit Anshu is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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
– Exit Anshu 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 Anshu Sharma, Jyotsna Bhatnagar 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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.
Learning organization
- Exit Anshu 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 Exit Anshu is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Exit Anshu has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Exit Anshu 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Exit Anshu is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Exit Anshu in the sector have low bargaining power. An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Exit Anshu to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Exit Anshu 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Exit Anshu products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Exit Anshu needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Exit Anshu 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Exit Anshu is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 Exit Anshu 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, in the dynamic environment Exit Anshu has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Exit Anshu has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Exit Anshu 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 Exit Anshu has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anshu Sharma, Jyotsna Bhatnagar suggests that, Exit Anshu 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Exit Anshu, firm in the HBR case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas | 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas are -
Loyalty marketing
– Exit Anshu 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Exit Anshu 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. Exit Anshu 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Exit Anshu has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Exit Anshu to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas case study. Exit Anshu can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Exit Anshu 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Exit Anshu 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Exit Anshu to increase its market reach. Exit Anshu 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Exit Anshu can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Exit Anshu 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
– Exit Anshu 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Exit Anshu 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.
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 Exit Anshu 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Exit Anshu 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Exit Anshu 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 Exit Anshu to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Exit Anshu 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.
Environmental challenges
– Exit Anshu 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. Exit Anshu 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. Exit Anshu can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Exit Anshu 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Exit Anshu is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Exit Anshu in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Exit Anshu 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.
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 Exit Anshu in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Exit Anshu 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. Exit Anshu needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Exit Anshu business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 Exit Anshu needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
