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Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year


Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year (GCY), quickly read through the most recent news updates regarding the Ebola crisis in West Africa as she prepared for her board call on July 31, 2014. Based in Oakland, California, GCY was a five-year-old not-for-profit with a fiscal year (FY) 2015 budget of $3.5 million. Its mission was to make it much more the norm for graduating high school students in the U.S. to choose a "bridge year." GCY believed this experience after high school, but before college, would help students build self-awareness, learn about the world, and develop grit. In turn, GCY felt these attributes laid the foundation for success in college, and beyond.

Authors :: Robert Steven Kaplan, Lauren Barley

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Social enterprise, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year" written by Robert Steven Kaplan, Lauren Barley includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gcy Abby facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gcy Abby, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gcy Abby 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gcy Abby
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gcy Abby




Strengths Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Gcy Abby in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year Harvard Business Review case study are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Gcy Abby in the sector have low bargaining power. Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gcy Abby to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Gcy Abby 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.

Analytics focus

– Gcy Abby is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Robert Steven Kaplan, Lauren Barley can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Diverse revenue streams

– Gcy Abby is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Gcy Abby is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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.

Training and development

– Gcy Abby has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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

– Gcy Abby is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 brand equity

– Gcy Abby has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gcy Abby to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Gcy Abby 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Gcy Abby 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Organizational Resilience of Gcy Abby

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gcy Abby does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.






Weaknesses Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year are -

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Gcy Abby has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert Steven Kaplan, Lauren Barley suggests that, Gcy Abby 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Gcy Abby has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gcy Abby needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year HBR case study mentions - Gcy Abby 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Gcy Abby has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gcy Abby is planning to shift buying processes online.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Gcy Abby 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.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Gcy Abby 's lucrative customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year, is just above the industry average. Gcy Abby 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.




Opportunities Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year | 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year are -

Loyalty marketing

– Gcy Abby 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gcy Abby 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.

Better consumer reach

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

Buying journey improvements

– Gcy Abby can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gcy Abby in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Gcy Abby 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Gcy Abby 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. Gcy Abby 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gcy Abby to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Gcy Abby to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Gcy Abby has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gcy Abby to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year case study. Gcy Abby can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Gcy Abby can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gcy Abby can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Developing new processes and practices

– Gcy Abby can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Gcy Abby 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gcy Abby to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.




Threats Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Gcy Abby is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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

– Gcy Abby 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.

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 Gcy Abby.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year, Gcy Abby may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .

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.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Gcy Abby business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Gcy Abby needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gcy Abby with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Gcy Abby has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gcy Abby needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gcy Abby 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year .

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Gcy Abby in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Gcy Abby needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year 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 Gcy Abby needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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