Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning
This is a Darden case study.How can executive education providers and purchasers best facilitate the transfer of program learning back to a participant's workplace setting? All too often, busy schedules, dealing with one crisis after another, and superseding priorities hinder such a transfer. This case is best used in a course where issues of education program design and/or adult learning are topics of interest. Similarly, it can also be a valuable addition to a course focusing on creating a learning organization and/or talent development.
Swot Analysis of "Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning" written by Mark E. Haskins includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Learning Participant's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Learning Participant's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Learning Participant's 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Learning Participant's
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 Learning Participant's
Strengths Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Learning Participant's in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Learning Participant's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Learning Participant's 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Learning Participant's 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
– Learning Participant's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Learning Participant's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Learning Participant's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Learning Participant's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Learning Participant's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Learning Participant's 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 Learning Participant's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Learning Participant's in the sector have low bargaining power. Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Learning Participant's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Learning Participant's 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Learning Participant's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Learning Participant's 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning HBR case study mentions - Learning Participant's takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Learning Participant's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Learning Participant's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Learning Participant's has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Learning Participant's 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Learning Participant's 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. Learning Participant's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Learning Participant's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Learning Participant's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Learning Participant's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Learning Participant's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Learning Participant's 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Learning Participant's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning, is just above the industry average. Learning Participant's 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.
Opportunities Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning | 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Learning Participant's to increase its market reach. Learning Participant's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Learning Participant's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Learning Participant's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Learning Participant's to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Learning Participant's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Learning Participant's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Learning Participant's in the consumer business. Now Learning Participant's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Learning Participant's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Learning Participant's 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, Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Learning Participant's 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.
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. Learning Participant's 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, Learning Participant's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Learning Participant's can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning, Learning Participant's 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 .
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 Learning Participant's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Learning Participant's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Learning Participant's is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Learning Participant's 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Learning Participant's 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.
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 Learning Participant's.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Learning Participant's 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, Learning Participant's 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning .
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 Learning Participant's in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Learning Participant's 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center: Lengthening the Half-Life of Learning 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 Learning Participant's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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