Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations
This case comments on the responsibility of professional organizations to respond openly to public accusations of wrongdoing by its members. It briefly relates the circumstances of the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' handling of concerns about auditor independence. The case suggests that professional associations can learn from these unsuccessful attempts to suppress public concerns about practitioners.
Swot Analysis of "Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations" written by Ashish Nanda includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Professional Archdiocese facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Managing people, Public relations and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Professional Archdiocese, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Professional Archdiocese 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Professional Archdiocese
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 Professional Archdiocese
Strengths Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Professional Archdiocese in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Professional Archdiocese has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Professional Archdiocese to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Professional Archdiocese 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Professional Archdiocese to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Professional Archdiocese to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Professional Archdiocese 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 Professional Archdiocese in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Professional Archdiocese 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
– Professional Archdiocese has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Professional Archdiocese digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Professional Archdiocese 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Professional Archdiocese in the sector have low bargaining power. Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Professional Archdiocese to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Professional Archdiocese has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Professional Archdiocese 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.
Organizational Resilience of Professional Archdiocese
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Professional Archdiocese does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Professional Archdiocese is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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.
Weaknesses Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Professional Archdiocese, firm in the HBR case study Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Professional Archdiocese is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Professional Archdiocese 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Professional Archdiocese 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Professional Archdiocese products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Professional Archdiocese needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Professional Archdiocese 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Professional Archdiocese 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Professional Archdiocese 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. Professional Archdiocese 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Professional Archdiocese 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations HBR case study mentions - Professional Archdiocese 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.
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 Professional Archdiocese supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Professional Archdiocese vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations | 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Professional Archdiocese in the consumer business. Now Professional Archdiocese can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Professional Archdiocese to increase its market reach. Professional Archdiocese 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
– Professional Archdiocese 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.
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 Professional Archdiocese 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Professional Archdiocese 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Professional Archdiocese 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 Organizational Development segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Professional Archdiocese 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Professional Archdiocese 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, Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Professional Archdiocese can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Professional Archdiocese operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Professional Archdiocese 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Professional Archdiocese 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Professional Archdiocese can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Professional Archdiocese is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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.
Threats Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations, Professional Archdiocese 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 .
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 Professional Archdiocese in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Professional Archdiocese needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Professional Archdiocese 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. Professional Archdiocese can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Professional Archdiocese.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Professional Archdiocese 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.
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.
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
– Professional Archdiocese 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Professional Archdiocese 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.
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 Professional Archdiocese business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Professional Archdiocese with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Professional Archdiocese can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Learning from Scandals: Responsibility of Professional Organizations 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 Professional Archdiocese needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.