FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version
FUTUR is a small nonprofit organization founded in Barcelona in 1996. Its aim is to create social and labor opportunities for potentially excluded individuals such as ex-convicts, single mothers with no income, battered women, the homeless, people over 45 years old affected by long-term unemployment, drug and alcohol addicts, and immigrants mostly from Latin America and Northern Africa with problems adapting to life in Barcelona. The type of jobs FUTUR has provided these individuals has changed over time. The organization started operating in the textile sector and later shifted its focus entirely to food services. It has also been committed to fair-trade and environmentally-friendly products. FUTUR opened several restaurants and later expanded into catering services and, more recently, to school cafeterias, the latter becoming a very successful venture. They were also ready to launch a new business to supplement these initiatives. It was based on selling organic, fair-trade products on the streets with salespeople riding specially adapted bicycles. However, the organization needed to find new facilities equipped with an industrial kitchen as it had to move from the building it was currently renting for a nominal price. With so many initiatives underway, Manuel Almirall pondered the pros and cons of diversification for an organization like FUTUR and whether it should concentrate on a single venture. Specifically, he wondered what strategy would be more effective to fulfill the organization's mission while maintaining sustainable growth and moving its central kitchen for its restaurants and catering services.
Swot Analysis of "FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version" written by Daniel Arenas, Alfred Vernis includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Futur Barcelona facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Futur Barcelona, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Futur Barcelona 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Futur Barcelona
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Futur Barcelona
Strengths FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Futur Barcelona in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Futur Barcelona is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Futur Barcelona is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Futur Barcelona to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Futur Barcelona to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Futur Barcelona 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version - 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 Futur Barcelona
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Futur Barcelona does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Futur Barcelona in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Futur Barcelona 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Futur Barcelona has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Futur Barcelona has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Futur Barcelona 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Futur Barcelona digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Futur Barcelona 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Futur Barcelona is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Futur Barcelona is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Futur Barcelona in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Futur Barcelona 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.
Weaknesses FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version HBR case study mentions - Futur Barcelona 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 Futur Barcelona 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 - FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 Futur Barcelona 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version, it seems that the employees of Futur Barcelona don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– Futur Barcelona 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Futur Barcelona 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Futur Barcelona 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Daniel Arenas, Alfred Vernis suggests that, Futur Barcelona 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Futur Barcelona has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Futur Barcelona even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Futur Barcelona has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Futur Barcelona is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Futur Barcelona needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Futur Barcelona to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version | 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Futur Barcelona can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Futur Barcelona can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Futur Barcelona can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Futur Barcelona 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Futur Barcelona in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Futur Barcelona can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Futur Barcelona 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, FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Futur Barcelona 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. Futur Barcelona 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Futur Barcelona can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Futur Barcelona 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Futur Barcelona is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Futur Barcelona can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Futur Barcelona operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Futur Barcelona 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.
Threats FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Futur Barcelona 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version .
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 Futur Barcelona business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Futur Barcelona
– 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 Futur Barcelona.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Futur Barcelona with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Futur Barcelona is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Futur Barcelona 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. Futur Barcelona can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Futur Barcelona has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Futur Barcelona needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Futur Barcelona.
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 Futur Barcelona in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version, Futur Barcelona may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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. Futur Barcelona needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Futur Barcelona in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 FUTUR-Working towards Social Inclusion, Spanish Version 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 Futur Barcelona needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
