Title:                           QuickBooks of Intuit: Exploring a Path to Asia

Subject Area:            Corporate strategy for an extension. Global strategy

Region:                      United States, China, Japan

Industry:                   Fin Tech

Company:                 Intuit Inc.

Challenge:                Intuit Inc., based in Mountain View, California, is known for providing functional and easy-to-use financial applications, most notably TurboTax and QuickBooks. For our project, we focused on QuickBooks: an all-encompassing accounting software designed for small business owners to completely integrate their banking, invoicing, bookkeeping and other financial matters. Due to its attractive price and functionality, QuickBooks has grown to be Intuit’s main revenue driver and an industry-leader amongst U.S. accounting software providers. Internationally, however, QuickBooks has failed to gain any traction, as foreign revenue has never surpassed 5% of operations in the company’s history. Therefore, to reinvigorate their foreign presence, our team undertook a comprehensive strategic analysis of two potential destinations for expansion, China and Japan, to help meet a target date of Intuit’s October 2020 Investor Day.

Embedding in Realities of the Industry and Company

Our group was drawn to QuickBooks because of the emerging trend of FinTech in all of the industries we aspire to enter. Therefore, we underwent extensive research to thoroughly cover all of the factors at-hand. To collect the proper data for analysis on the company, industry, and markets, our team thoroughly analyzed Intuit’s recent SEC filings and presentations, as well as third-party articles and data sources. In addition, we engaged in a QuickBooks demo to better understand what makes the product so unique and helpful. Collectively, we were able to gather exhaustive data on Intuit’s internal capabilities, as well as the operating environment in both regions. Using this information, our group applied the following strategic frameworks to properly analyze both countries for entry and capitalize on Intuit’s core competencies:

Generating Value: Findings & Recommendation

Based on the applied frameworks, we made several conclusions:

• QuickBooks’ prior international experience had failed to gain traction due to a lack of consideration given to local accounting standards and regulations.
• Among local competitors in China and Japan, Intuit had the financial prowess and experience to pursue both cost leadership and differentiation strategies.
• Both China and Japan present significant market opportunities, but also barriers to entry in the form of established players, as well as protectionist regulations.

Through our coursework, professional experience, and research, the team reached a diligent and well-backed solution to the challenge at-hand.
In addition to choosing between China and Japan, our group formulated a detailed entry strategy covering:

• Unique positioning and offering relative to competitors (competitive/global strategy)
• Inspiring changes in organizational architecture (controls, incentives, culture)
• Actionable timeline and budget for market entry