Using Adverse Conditions to a Company's Advantage

• Chakravorti discusses four methods that corporate innovators use to turn adverse conditions to their advantage. These methods include: (1) Matching Unneeded Resources to Unmet Needs; (2) Rounding Up the Unusual Suspects; (3) Finding Small Solutions to Big Problems; and (4) Thinking Platform, Not Just Product.

The company I would like to discuss this week is Zoom. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were all trying to keep the machine running but we had to find a new way to communicate. In my organization we decided to go with zoom to communicate. This was a fitting example of a previously unneeded resource for unmet needs. Zoom was available to anyone who wanted to download the app. This made it easy for large enterprises and individuals to communicate on the same platform, (Think Platform not Product) Weather it was a national sales meeting or an individual interview the Zoom platform provided the resource we needed. Zooms growth was significant during the pandemic (1)

While there are a number of platforms available now like Microsoft's Teams and Cisco's WebEx I believe Zoom was the leader in this area due to accessibility. They were able to understand the limitations and difficulties with the other platforms and capitalize using a novel product. (Knowing the competition, rounding up the usual suspects)

Zoom has continued to grow during 2022 with revenues up 12% year over year. (2)

KEY POINTS

• Zoom is still growing, despite declining engagement from small- and medium-size accounts.
• Management is hoping to boost sales by adding services over time.
• Zoom can afford to spend aggressively on its platform thanks to healthy cash flow.

Motley Fool Issues Rare "All In" Buy Alert (3)

Zoom continues to make small changes to the offering, an example of this is sales to customer who spend over 100K per year has risen 46% this year. Zooms strategy of attracting larger enterprises is working. (3)

Last Zoom like most tech stock has been hit hard this year, down 71% from 12 months ago. Fortunately, this looks like a buying opportunity with several analysts recommending buy on the stock. (4)

Zoom is a good example of Bhaskar Chakravorti Finding Competitive Advantage in Adversity. (5)

Thanks for reading my post I look forward to your comments.

Best regards

Paul

References:

1. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/zoom-statistics/#:~:text=Zoom%20rapidly%20increased%20its%20revenue,2020%20and%2053%25%20in%202021.
2. https://www.google.com/search?q=zoom+growth+2022&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS922US922&ei=x63hYrmqAp6C0PEP-vOp4A0&oq=zoom+growth&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYBjIFCAAQkQIyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BwgAEEcQsAM6BAgAEA06BQgAEIYDOhAILhCxAxCDARDHARDRAxBDOgoIABCxAxCDARBDOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToECAAQQzoRCC4QgAQQsQMQgwEQxwEQ0QM6EQguEIAEELEDEMcBENEDENQCOggIABCxAxCDAToHCAAQgAQQCkoECEEYAEoECEYYAFD9B1jEQGC9VWgBcAF4AIABiQGIAYEUkgEEMjIuN5gBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz
3. https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/05/26/zoom-post-covid-growth-strategy-coming-in-focus/

1. https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/lti/links/content-launch

1. https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/lti/links/content-launch

Based on this persons response, I am looking for answers/solutions/ideas on how to response