2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field
The development and utilization of an intentional Field learning strategy developed for the Obama for President campaign in 2012 following an after action Review calling for it after the 2008 elections
Swot Analysis of "2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field" written by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Jason Gray includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Obama Campaign facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Developing employees, Knowledge management, Marketing and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Obama Campaign, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Obama Campaign 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Obama Campaign
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 Obama Campaign
Strengths 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Obama Campaign in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Obama Campaign in the sector have low bargaining power. 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Obama Campaign to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Obama Campaign is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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.
Organizational Resilience of Obama Campaign
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Obama Campaign does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Obama Campaign is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Obama Campaign in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Obama Campaign has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Obama Campaign to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Obama Campaign has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 Obama Campaign digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Obama Campaign 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Obama Campaign is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Obama Campaign 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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.
Learning organization
- Obama Campaign 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 Obama Campaign is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 Obama Campaign 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field, is just above the industry average. Obama Campaign 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Obama Campaign 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field, in the dynamic environment Obama Campaign has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Obama Campaign has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Obama Campaign 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Obama Campaign 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Obama Campaign is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Obama Campaign needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Obama Campaign 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 Obama Campaign has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Obama Campaign 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Obama Campaign is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field | 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field are -
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. Obama Campaign 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. Obama Campaign 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.
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 Obama Campaign 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Obama Campaign can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Obama Campaign 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 Obama Campaign to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Obama Campaign 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Obama Campaign to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Obama Campaign 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Obama Campaign 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Obama Campaign 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.
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. Obama Campaign can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Obama Campaign is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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, Obama Campaign can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Obama Campaign operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Obama Campaign can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Obama Campaign to increase its market reach. Obama Campaign 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.
Threats 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field are -
Increasing wage structure of Obama Campaign
– 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 Obama Campaign.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Obama Campaign 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Obama Campaign has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Obama Campaign 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.
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. Obama Campaign can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Obama Campaign 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.
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 Obama Campaign business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Obama Campaign 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, Obama Campaign 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Obama Campaign 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field, Obama Campaign 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Obama Campaign 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.
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 Obama Campaign.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Obama Campaign 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 2012 Obama Campaign: Learning in the Field 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 Obama Campaign needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
