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Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community


Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to young children living in poverty and just above poverty. Initial results showed that Invest Early children were better prepared for kindergarten than their low-income counterparts and the proficiency gap between Invest Early and high-income children had decreased significantly. Integrating and sustaining such a complicated network of individuals and organizations were not easy; it had taken over 10 years and thousands of hours of meetings. Issues such as the continued availability of funding and leadership turnover still threatened the effectiveness of the collaboration and the economic recession would almost certainly impact future leadership team decisions. Furthermore, the longstanding Head Start Education Manager, Dolores Bretti, was set to retire. Future challenges, such as declining budgets and Bretti's retirement, would require many more hours of meetings and collaborative solutions. Invest Early Director Jan Reindl felt that she and the Leadership Team members were ready for anything, but also wondered how new personalities and a different operating environment would influence Invest Early. What would need to change? What should remain the same? How could Invest Early and the Leadership Team be prepared for it all?

Authors :: Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Collaboration, Costs, Economic development, Generational issues, Joint ventures, Personnel policies, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community" written by Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Invest Childhood facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Collaboration, Costs, Economic development, Generational issues, Joint ventures, Personnel policies and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Invest Childhood, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Invest Childhood 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Invest Childhood
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 Invest Childhood




Strengths Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Invest Childhood in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community Harvard Business Review case study are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– Invest Childhood 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Diverse revenue streams

– Invest Childhood is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Invest Childhood digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Invest Childhood 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Invest Childhood 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Invest Childhood is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Invest Childhood 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.

Training and development

– Invest Childhood has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Invest Childhood is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Invest Childhood to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Invest Childhood to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Invest Childhood in the sector have low bargaining power. Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Invest Childhood to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Invest Childhood in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.






Weaknesses Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community are -

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community, in the dynamic environment Invest Childhood has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Invest Childhood has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Childhood has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Need for greater diversity

– Invest Childhood 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community HBR case study mentions - Invest Childhood takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Invest Childhood is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Invest Childhood needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Invest Childhood to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community, 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Invest Childhood 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Invest Childhood 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Invest Childhood is planning to shift buying processes online.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community, is just above the industry average. Invest Childhood needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.

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 Invest Childhood supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Invest Childhood vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.




Opportunities Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community | 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Invest Childhood 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Invest Childhood can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Invest Childhood 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.

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 Invest Childhood 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Invest Childhood 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, Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Invest Childhood is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Invest Childhood can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Invest Childhood to increase its market reach. Invest Childhood 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Invest Childhood 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Invest Childhood 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Invest Childhood has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Invest Childhood to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

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. Invest Childhood 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. Invest Childhood 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Invest Childhood can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Invest Childhood operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.




Threats Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community are -

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Invest Childhood high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Invest Childhood 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Invest Childhood 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.

Environmental challenges

– Invest Childhood 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. Invest Childhood can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

Increasing wage structure of Invest Childhood

– 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 Invest Childhood.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Invest Childhood needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Invest Childhood demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

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. Invest Childhood 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Invest Childhood 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.

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. Invest Childhood can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Invest Childhood in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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 Invest Childhood.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community 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 Invest Childhood needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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