Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization
Drawing on cases in agricultural transgenic technology and genomics in forestry, this article provides a framework to help managers develop strategies for more efficient technology development and diffusion. Strategies that fail to consider legitimization processes, especially in controversial social environments and/or varying institutional settings, could result in costly delays or promising technology left sitting on the shelf. Technology developers need to identify key technological, commercial, organizational, and societal uncertainties during the early phases of the technology's development, allowing them to shape the technology for more efficient diffusion.
Authors :: Jeremy Hall, Vernon Bachor, Stelvia Matos
Swot Analysis of "Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization" written by Jeremy Hall, Vernon Bachor, Stelvia Matos includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Legitimization Diffusion facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Research & development and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Legitimization Diffusion, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Legitimization Diffusion 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Legitimization Diffusion
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 Legitimization Diffusion
Strengths Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Legitimization Diffusion in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Legitimization Diffusion has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Organizational Resilience of Legitimization Diffusion
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Legitimization Diffusion does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Legitimization Diffusion 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 Legitimization Diffusion in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Legitimization Diffusion 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Legitimization Diffusion 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 Legitimization Diffusion is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Legitimization Diffusion is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Training and development
– Legitimization Diffusion has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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.
Analytics focus
– Legitimization Diffusion 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 Jeremy Hall, Vernon Bachor, Stelvia Matos 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Legitimization Diffusion is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Legitimization Diffusion in the sector have low bargaining power. Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Legitimization Diffusion to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization HBR case study mentions - Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization, in the dynamic environment Legitimization Diffusion has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Legitimization Diffusion has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Legitimization Diffusion 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. Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization, is just above the industry average. Legitimization Diffusion 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
– Legitimization Diffusion 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, Legitimization Diffusion is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization, it seems that the employees of Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Legitimization Diffusion is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Legitimization Diffusion needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Legitimization Diffusion to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Legitimization Diffusion supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Legitimization Diffusion vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization | 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Legitimization Diffusion 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.
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. Legitimization Diffusion can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Legitimization Diffusion 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.
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. Legitimization Diffusion 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. Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Legitimization Diffusion 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 Legitimization Diffusion to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Legitimization Diffusion can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Legitimization Diffusion is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Legitimization Diffusion can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
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 Legitimization Diffusion in the consumer business. Now Legitimization Diffusion can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization are -
Environmental challenges
– Legitimization Diffusion 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. Legitimization Diffusion 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.
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. Legitimization Diffusion 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.
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. Legitimization Diffusion can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Legitimization Diffusion
– 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 Legitimization Diffusion.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Legitimization Diffusion with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Legitimization Diffusion.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Legitimization Diffusion 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.
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 Legitimization Diffusion business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Legitimization Diffusion 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization .
Regulatory challenges
– Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Legitimization Diffusion has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Legitimization Diffusion 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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 Developing and Diffusing New Technologies: Strategies for Legitimization 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 Legitimization Diffusion needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.