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 - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, 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 -
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Exit Anshu has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Exit Anshu 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.
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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Exit Anshu 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.
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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Exit Anshu to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Exit Anshu to invest into research and development (R&D) 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Exit Anshu digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Exit Anshu 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.
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.
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.
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 -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Exit Anshu has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Exit Anshu is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, it seems that the employees of Exit Anshu 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.
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.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Exit Anshu 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.
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 Exit Anshu supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Exit Anshu vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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.
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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Exit Anshu 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, An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Exit Anshu in the consumer business. Now Exit Anshu can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Exit Anshu can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Exit Anshu 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Exit Anshu with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas, Exit Anshu 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
– 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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Exit Anshu 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 An Entrepreneur's Future Calling: Human Capital Risk and Exit Dilemmas .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Exit Anshu has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Exit Anshu 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.
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 Exit Anshu.
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. Exit Anshu 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.