Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd
Civic challenges such as urban mobility and energy problems offer new corporate innovation opportunities. However, such challenges are wicked and difficult to tame. They require novel solutions that account for and integrate contradictory perspectives within the local innovation ecosystem of firms, governments, and citizens. This article presents a successful civic innovation crowdsourcing project case study, in which multinational firm Bombardier encouraged a global civic crowd to co-create visionary solutions to the challenge of future mobility in crowded cities around the world. Bombardier recruited a global crowd of 900 individuals and facilitated the citizen development of more than 215 solutions of unique firm value. We explore the process and outcome of this crowdsourcing project and derive actionable design principles for a three-phased civic innovation crowdsourcing process including: (1) crowd construction, (2) crowd knowledge acquisition, and (3) crowd knowledge assimilation. This process enables the crowd to integrate members' diverse and contradictory knowledge proactively at both the team and individual levels. Additionally, the crowd is able to balance extension of existing local solutions and exploration of path-breaking technologies and solution concepts.
Authors :: Sabine Brunswicker, Volker Bilgram, Johann Fuller
Swot Analysis of "Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd" written by Sabine Brunswicker, Volker Bilgram, Johann Fuller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Crowd Civic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crowd Civic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crowd Civic 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crowd Civic
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 Crowd Civic
Strengths Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Crowd Civic in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Crowd Civic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Crowd Civic has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Crowd Civic has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Analytics focus
– Crowd Civic 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 Sabine Brunswicker, Volker Bilgram, Johann Fuller 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Crowd Civic 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Crowd Civic in the sector have low bargaining power. Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Crowd Civic to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Crowd Civic is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Crowd Civic has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Crowd Civic to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Crowd Civic 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 Crowd Civic is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Crowd Civic is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Crowd Civic is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Crowd Civic 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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.
Weaknesses Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd HBR case study mentions - Crowd Civic 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Crowd Civic is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd, it seems that the employees of Crowd Civic 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Crowd Civic 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sabine Brunswicker, Volker Bilgram, Johann Fuller suggests that, Crowd Civic 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Crowd Civic 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. Crowd Civic 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Crowd Civic, firm in the HBR case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd, is just above the industry average. Crowd Civic 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Crowd Civic 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Crowd Civic is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Crowd Civic needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Crowd Civic to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd | 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Crowd Civic 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, Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Crowd Civic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Crowd Civic 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Crowd Civic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Crowd Civic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd case study. Crowd Civic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Crowd Civic 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Crowd Civic 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Crowd Civic 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 Crowd Civic to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Crowd Civic to increase its market reach. Crowd Civic 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 Crowd Civic can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Crowd Civic 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.
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. Crowd Civic can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Crowd Civic 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Crowd Civic to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Crowd Civic 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.
Threats Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd are -
Regulatory challenges
– Crowd Civic 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Crowd Civic 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Crowd Civic 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Crowd Civic is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Crowd Civic
– 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 Crowd Civic.
Environmental challenges
– Crowd Civic 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. Crowd Civic can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd, Crowd Civic 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Crowd Civic can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in 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. Crowd Civic can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Crowd Civic has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Crowd Civic 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.
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 Crowd Civic in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Crowd Civic needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Taming Wicked Civic Challenges with an Innovative Crowd 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 Crowd Civic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.