Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations
This case documents the history and development of philanthropic work in providing quality education by CARE (Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education) under the leadership of its chairperson, Seema Aziz. Seema started CARE in 1988 as a small voluntary effort to help the flood victims of the Sheikhupura town, Lahore (Pakistan) and later directed the organization's focus towards providing quality education to underprivileged children. After over a decade of efforts which led to the establishment of 6 CARE owned schools and adoption of 20 schools from the Government of Punjab, Seema was faced with an important decision which would shape the future of CARE. In September 2002, the government of Punjab offered CARE to adopt another 140 government schools. The offer had left Seema at a crossroads as accepting the offer would achieve CARE's mission by accelerating the process of spreading education. However, it would invite challenges associated with managing a rapidly growing organization, providing for additional funds and other organizational resources, and establishing a professional and well motivated Human Resource base to support the expansion decision which would have to be taken within a few months. On the other hand, refusing the government's offer would enable Seema to take CARE through a gradual process of growth ensuring control over policymaking and implementation, minimizing risks related to financial sustainability, building organizational and human resource capacities and above all preparing leadership capabilities necessary for a growing organization. For Seema it was indeed a tough decision. She felt that as she contemplated the offer to prepare CARE to take up the challenge, thousands of children lost hope for basic education and an opportunity to live like the privileged part of the society. While Seema's heart was truly tempted to take up the government's offer, her mind was well aware that she must choose her options wisely.
Authors :: Arif Butt, Humaira Butt, Shezeen Hemani
Swot Analysis of "Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations" written by Arif Butt, Humaira Butt, Shezeen Hemani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Seema Care facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Seema Care, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Seema Care 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Seema Care
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 Seema Care
Strengths Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Seema Care in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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.
Analytics focus
– Seema Care 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 Arif Butt, Humaira Butt, Shezeen Hemani 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Seema Care 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.
High brand equity
– Seema Care has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Seema Care to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Seema Care 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.
Training and development
– Seema Care has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Seema Care 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 Seema Care in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Seema Care 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 Seema Care is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Seema Care is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Seema Care in the sector have low bargaining power. Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Seema Care to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Seema Care is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Seema Care
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Seema Care does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Seema Care has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Seema Care 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations, in the dynamic environment Seema Care has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Seema Care has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations, 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arif Butt, Humaira Butt, Shezeen Hemani suggests that, Seema Care 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, Seema Care 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. Seema Care 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations, is just above the industry average. Seema Care 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, Seema Care 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Seema Care is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations 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 Seema Care has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations HBR case study mentions - Seema Care 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.
Opportunities Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Seema Care 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Seema Care 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Seema Care 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 Seema Care to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Seema Care can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Seema Care 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Seema Care can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Seema Care to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Seema Care 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, Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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.
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 Seema Care in the consumer business. Now Seema Care 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 Seema Care to increase its market reach. Seema Care 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
– Seema Care can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Seema Care 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.
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. Seema Care can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Seema Care 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Seema Care 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
– Seema Care has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Seema Care 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.
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. Seema Care 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.
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. Seema Care needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Seema Care is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Seema Care can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Seema Care
– 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 Seema Care.
Environmental challenges
– Seema Care 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. Seema Care can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations, Seema Care 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Seema Care 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Seema Care 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector Organizations .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Cooperation for Advancement Rehabilitation and Education (CARE): Leadership in Social Sector 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 Seema Care needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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