Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church
Brad Powell, the newly hired senior leader of a Christian church, must lead the organization to reverse a three-decade decline and return to fulfilling its mission. Brad spent the first six months assessing the situation, building relationships, and reiterating the longstanding mission of the organization. Now, with an understanding of its history, an intimate knowledge of the immediate challenges, and a clear vision of what the organization should become, Brad is considering his strategy and next steps. As the leader of a nonprofit organization resourced by members and volunteers, Brad must lead change that produces results without compromising the mission. The B case summarizes Brad's actions and the results.
Swot Analysis of "Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church" written by William White, Christopher Recktenwald includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Brad Church facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Influence, Managing people, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brad Church, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brad Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brad Church
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 Brad Church
Strengths Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brad Church in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Brad Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Brad Church 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 Brad Church in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Brad Church digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Brad Church 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.
Training and development
– Brad Church has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Brad Church 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Brad Church 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
– Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Brad Church to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Brad Church to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Brad Church has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brad Church to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Brad Church has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Brad Church 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Brad Church in the sector have low bargaining power. Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Brad Church to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Brad Church 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 Brad Church is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Brad Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, in the dynamic environment Brad Church has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Brad Church has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Brad Church supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Brad Church vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Brad Church 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. Brad Church 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Brad Church is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Brad Church needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Brad Church to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, is just above the industry average. Brad Church 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 Brad Church 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Brad Church is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Brad Church 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Brad Church 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.
Opportunities Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church | 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Brad Church 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Brad Church 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Brad Church 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, Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Brad Church 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Brad Church can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Brad Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Brad Church to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Brad Church is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Brad Church 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brad Church 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.
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. Brad Church 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. Brad Church 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 Brad Church 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Brad Church 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 Brad Church to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Brad Church can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church are -
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 Brad Church in the Organizational Development 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church, Brad Church 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 .
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 Brad Church.
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 Brad Church business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Brad Church 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Brad Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Brad Church with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Brad Church 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Brad Church 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.
Environmental challenges
– Brad Church 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. Brad Church can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Brad Church 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.
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. Brad Church needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Brad Church
– 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 Brad Church.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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 Change Without Compromise (B): The Growth of NorthRidge Church 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 Brad Church needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.