Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World
The millennium objectives of reducing poverty and malnutrition are not being met. How do the private, public, and NGO sectors of society work together to achieve better results and include the recipients in the process?
Authors :: Ray A. Goldberg, Djordjija Petkoski, Kerry Herman
Topics :: Organizational Development
Tags :: Global strategy, Joint ventures, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Djordjija Petkoski, Kerry Herman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Malnutrition Hunger facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Global strategy, Joint ventures, Social responsibility and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Malnutrition Hunger, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Malnutrition Hunger 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Malnutrition Hunger
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 Malnutrition Hunger
Strengths Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Malnutrition Hunger in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Malnutrition Hunger 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 Ray A. Goldberg, Djordjija Petkoski, Kerry Herman 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Malnutrition Hunger is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Malnutrition Hunger has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Malnutrition Hunger has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Malnutrition Hunger is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Malnutrition Hunger
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Malnutrition Hunger does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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.
High brand equity
– Malnutrition Hunger has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Malnutrition Hunger to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Malnutrition Hunger to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Malnutrition Hunger to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Malnutrition Hunger 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 Malnutrition Hunger is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World HBR case study mentions - Malnutrition Hunger 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Malnutrition Hunger 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Malnutrition Hunger 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. Malnutrition Hunger 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 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 Malnutrition Hunger supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Malnutrition Hunger vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Malnutrition Hunger is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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, Malnutrition Hunger 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, Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Malnutrition Hunger products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Malnutrition Hunger needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World, in the dynamic environment Malnutrition Hunger has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Malnutrition Hunger has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Malnutrition Hunger is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Malnutrition Hunger needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Malnutrition Hunger 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Malnutrition Hunger has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World | 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World are -
Buying journey improvements
– Malnutrition Hunger can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Malnutrition Hunger has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Malnutrition Hunger to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World case study. Malnutrition Hunger can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Malnutrition Hunger in the consumer business. Now Malnutrition Hunger can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Malnutrition Hunger 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. Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Malnutrition Hunger can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Malnutrition Hunger operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Malnutrition Hunger 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 Malnutrition Hunger to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Malnutrition Hunger 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
– Malnutrition Hunger 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.
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. Malnutrition Hunger can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Malnutrition Hunger to increase its market reach. Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Malnutrition Hunger 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, Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World are -
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 Malnutrition Hunger business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Increasing wage structure of Malnutrition Hunger
– 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 Malnutrition Hunger.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Malnutrition Hunger is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World, Malnutrition Hunger 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Malnutrition Hunger with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Malnutrition Hunger needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Malnutrition Hunger in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Malnutrition Hunger can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Malnutrition Hunger 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. Malnutrition Hunger can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
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 Malnutrition Hunger.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Malnutrition Hunger 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in the Developing World 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 Malnutrition Hunger needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.