Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems, Genzyme, General Electric and Intel are often credited with having attained market leadership through open innovation strategies. By tapping into and exploiting the technological knowledge that resided beyond their own R&D structures, these companies outmaneuvered rivals. But while other organizations try to follow their example, this research shows that many are failing because they neglect to ensure that the outside ideas reach the people best equipped to exploit them. R&D leaders need to think not only about combing the outside world for new and potentially applicable ideas but also about how to ensure that those ideas receive serious consideration. By understanding the roles of two types of innovation brokers -"idea scouts" and "idea connectors"-in the open innovation process, and by utilizing their talents effectively, managers can preside over major improvements in the conversion of external knowledge into successful outcomes. The authors provide numerous examples, pointing out that success at open innovation depends on the presence of both types of innovation brokers. But despite these innovation brokers'importance to the organization, the people who wound up as idea scouts and connectors often came as a complete surprise to management. Innovation is too important to be left to chance, however. If innovation brokers do not exist, management is obliged to "invent" them -i.e., recruit the right people to perform these valuable roles.
Authors :: Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk, Rick Aalbers
Swot Analysis of "Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation" written by Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk, Rick Aalbers includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Innovation Brokers facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Innovation Brokers, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Innovation Brokers 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Innovation Brokers
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 Innovation Brokers
Strengths Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Innovation Brokers in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Innovation Brokers is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Innovation Brokers 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Innovation Brokers in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Innovation Brokers 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Innovation Brokers is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Innovation Brokers digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Innovation Brokers 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Innovation Brokers is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Innovation Brokers has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Innovation Brokers 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Innovation Brokers 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Innovation Brokers has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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.
High brand equity
– Innovation Brokers has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Innovation Brokers to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Innovation Brokers 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Innovation Brokers has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Eoin Whelan, Salvatore Parise, Jasper de Valk, Rick Aalbers suggests that, Innovation Brokers 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation, in the dynamic environment Innovation Brokers has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Innovation Brokers has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Innovation Brokers has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of Innovation Brokers products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Innovation Brokers needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Innovation Brokers supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Innovation Brokers vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Innovation Brokers is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Innovation Brokers is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Innovation Brokers needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Innovation Brokers to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Innovation Brokers, firm in the HBR case study Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation, 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.
Opportunities Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation | 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Innovation Brokers is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Innovation Brokers 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Innovation Brokers 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. Innovation Brokers can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Innovation Brokers to increase its market reach. Innovation Brokers 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Innovation Brokers has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Innovation Brokers to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation case study. Innovation Brokers can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Innovation Brokers 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Innovation Brokers can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Innovation Brokers operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Innovation Brokers 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.
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. Innovation Brokers 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. Innovation Brokers 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Innovation Brokers 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Innovation Brokers can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Innovation Brokers 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.
Threats Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation are -
Environmental challenges
– Innovation Brokers 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. Innovation Brokers can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Innovation Brokers 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Innovation Brokers has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Innovation Brokers 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Innovation Brokers 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Innovation Brokers 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 Innovation Brokers
– 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 Innovation Brokers.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Innovation Brokers 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Innovation Brokers 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation .
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. Innovation Brokers 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation, Innovation Brokers 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 .
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 Innovation Brokers.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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 Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation 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 Innovation Brokers needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.