Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next
Recorded Future is a "big data" startup company that uses Internet data to make predictions about events, people, and entities. The company primarily serves government intelligence agencies, but has some private sector clients and is considering taking on more. The CEO, Christopher Ahlberg, is wrestling with several key decisions about where to take the company in the future.
Swot Analysis of "Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next" written by Thomas H. Davenport includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Recorded Ahlberg facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Forecasting, Internet, IT, Operations management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Recorded Ahlberg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Recorded Ahlberg
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 Recorded Ahlberg
Strengths Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Recorded Ahlberg in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Organizational Resilience of Recorded Ahlberg
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Recorded Ahlberg does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Recorded Ahlberg is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Learning organization
- Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Ahlberg is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Recorded Ahlberg 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 Thomas H. Davenport 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Recorded Ahlberg is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Recorded Ahlberg is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Recorded Ahlberg digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Recorded Ahlberg has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Training and development
– Recorded Ahlberg has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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.
Weaknesses Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Recorded Ahlberg is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Recorded Ahlberg is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Recorded Ahlberg needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Recorded Ahlberg to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Ahlberg 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Thomas H. Davenport suggests that, Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next, is just above the industry average. Recorded Ahlberg 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next HBR case study mentions - Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Recorded Ahlberg, firm in the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next, it seems that the employees of Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Recorded Ahlberg 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, Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Opportunities Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next | 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Recorded Ahlberg to increase its market reach. Recorded Ahlberg 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.
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. Recorded Ahlberg 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. Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Recorded Ahlberg is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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.
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. Recorded Ahlberg can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Recorded Ahlberg in the consumer business. Now Recorded Ahlberg can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Recorded Ahlberg to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Ahlberg can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Recorded Ahlberg can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Recorded Ahlberg has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Recorded Ahlberg to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next case study. Recorded Ahlberg can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next, Recorded Ahlberg 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Recorded Ahlberg 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. Recorded Ahlberg can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Recorded Ahlberg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Recorded Ahlberg 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next .
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 Recorded Ahlberg in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Recorded Ahlberg has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Recorded Ahlberg 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.
Increasing wage structure of Recorded Ahlberg
– 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 Recorded Ahlberg.
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 Recorded Ahlberg business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Future: Analyzing Internet Ideas About What Comes Next 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 Recorded Ahlberg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
