TED

EXECUTIVE
STRATEGIC
ANALYSIS
Summer Squad 8
August, 5th 2021
OGL:355
Professor Bill Erwin
 TED is a nonprofit devoted to
spreading ideas, usually in the
form of short, powerful talks
where technology, entertainment
and design converge.

All Images Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talk

 Agenda
01 04
Organizational SWOT
Structure Examination

02 05
Leadership
Competitive
&
Advantage
Background

03 06
Environmental Recommendations
Analysis
 Analysis strategy

🎤 Speaker captures audiences

attention

🎤 Speaker has a clear introduction,

middle & ending

You can enter a subtitle here if you need it

🎤 Speaker presents problems that
audiences can relate to

🎤 Speaker provides a clear solution

to the problem
 TED’s Leadership and Background
CO-FOUNDER OF TED Richard Saul Wurman

CO-FOUNDER OF TED Harry Marks

1984 YEAR FOUNDED

Technology, Entertainment, and Design REASONING

1st TED TALK Compact Disc, E-Book, 3D Graphics and Maps

Chris Anderson (2001 - Present) CURRENT CEO OF TED

TED INTERNET
TAKES TO LAUNCH
THE INTERNET June 27th, 2006
All Information Acquired from “History of TED” (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/history-of-ted)
 ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Industry analysis Bargaining power of

● Vital part of business
● Porter’s Five Forces
Threat of new
Entrants
Strains profitability &
● suppliers
effectiveness
● Barrier to Entry =
Brand Loyalty
● Large-Scale Production
● Drives competition
buyers Threat of substitute
Two separate groups:
products
●
Attendees + Online ● Alternatives = Podcasts,
Viewers blogs, Wikipedia and
● Search Engines increase articles
● Cumbersome, is not
bargaining power
reliable or easily
● Geographics digestible
Bargaining power of
Industry rivalry
● Can cause a loss of money and
● Bargaining power of
market share
suppliers = low
● Ex:) Big Think, PopTech, Ideacity,
● Suppliers = speakers,
99u, Ignite, etc.
venue and Sponsors ● Differentiation = mission and
● Organizer’s Vision formatt
 Target Market
● Students

● Researchers

● Innovators

● Business Leaders

Cost-Leadership Differentiation Differentiation/Focus

Strategy Strategy Strategy
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
● Inspirational ● Highly Diluted Brand
● Effective Medium ● Quality Varys
● Memorable ● Novelty Lost
● Unique Topics ● Unorganized
● Platform for Organizers
Entrepreneurs SWOT ● Funding Issues

Analysis
● Social Media ● Security Issues
Advertising ● Data/Info Loss
● Infomercials ● High Attrition Rate
● Accessibility ● Lack of Funding
● Shareability ● Negative Employee
Attitudes

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Competitive Advantage

Inspiration Leveraging
Mass Media

Innovative Stakeholder
Presentations expertise &
& format Organizational
Capabilities
 Recommended Actions
● Leverage New Forms of Social Media
○ TikTok
○ Instagram
○ Youtube Shorts
○ Facebook Stories

● Create Short Inspirational Previews (or SIPs)

○ Shorter bits of content are desired.
○ TED can highlight with previews
While still being Inspirational

● Leverage Already Existing Community

○ Already has an incredibly active community
○ Already shares lots of content
○ TED can leverage this to create SIPs if it rolls out the tools.
 TED Talks are viewed in all formats

3 Billion
Times Annually

A viewership base has been built. TED has

monopolized the market on attracting leading figures.
Staff knows how to operate.

What is next?

ENGAGE. EMPOWER. EXCEL.

 References:
Coulter, M. (2013). Strategic management in action (6th ed.). Pearson.

Dwoskin, E., & Paquette, D. (2017, November 17). The TED TALKS empire has been grappling with sexual Harassment, interviews and internal emails show.
The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-ted-talks-empire-has-been-grappling-with-sexual-harassment-interviews-and-internal-emails-s
how/2017/11/17/39f9374a-cae7-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html.

Haus, P. (2020, March 19). Popular ted talks: What they teach about content marketing. Content Marketing Institute.
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/12/ted-talks-content-marketing/.

Grams, C. (2010). Evaluating tedx as a brand strategy. Opensource.com. https://opensource.com/business/10/9/evaluating-tedx-as-a-brand-strategy.

History of TED. TED:Ideas Worth Spreading. (n.d.). https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/history-of-ted.

Kandur, J. L. (2017, July 21). Influence of TED Talks. Daily Sabah. https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2017/07/22/influence-of-ted-talks.

Kehoe, D. (2015, October 26). 9 reasons TED talks are so popular. The Biz. http://thebiz.bentley.edu/9-reasons-ted-talks-are-so-popular/.

Lares, A. (2019, June 6). Why ted talks are the modern gold standard for presentations. Shapiro Negotiations.
https://www.shapironegotiations.com/why-ted-talks-are-the-modern-gold-standard-for-presentations/.

Merchant, N. (2014, October 7). When TED lost control of its crowd. Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2013/04/when-ted-lost-control-of-its-crowd.

Organize a Local TEDx Event. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. (n.d.) https://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event.

Sehl, K. (2021). 23 Important TikTok Stats Marketers Need to Know in 2021.. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-stats/amp/

TED Talks. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. (2019). https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/ted-talks.