What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?
This article examines disparity between business school focus and business community needs. A content analysis of 200 corporate job descriptions collected in Fall 2009 revealed 140 specific license/certification/skills commonly cited as required for candidates applying for business jobs. A detailed matching of these post-graduation proficiencies with pre-graduation business major tracks is provided herein to assist schools in better aligning curricula with job requirements. This matching and aligning process is proposed as a key means for reducing disparity between post-graduation licenses/certification/skills required and the academic tracks that are feeders for such positions. Examination of 200 rA?sumA?s of business students nearing graduation revealed low to no proficiency on the job description-derived skill sets. This finding suggests that disparity between school of business focus and practitioner needs is ongoing and potentially problematic, at least at the institutions sampled. A content analysis of 100 school of business course syllabi and 20 textbooks supported this conclusion. This article provides suggestions for closing the gap between business school curricula and corporate needs. The old business school is compared to our vision of the new business school, where close alignment of pre-graduation training with post-graduation job requirements serves both students and practitioners well.
Authors :: Fred R. David, Meredith E. David, Forest R. David
Swot Analysis of "What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?" written by Fred R. David, Meredith E. David, Forest R. David includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Graduation Disparity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Managing people, Social enterprise and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Graduation Disparity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Graduation Disparity 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Graduation Disparity
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 Graduation Disparity
Strengths What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Graduation Disparity in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Graduation Disparity 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Graduation Disparity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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.
High brand equity
– Graduation Disparity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Graduation Disparity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Graduation Disparity 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 Graduation Disparity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Graduation Disparity 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Graduation Disparity in the sector have low bargaining power. What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Graduation Disparity to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Graduation Disparity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Graduation Disparity digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Graduation Disparity 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Graduation Disparity 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 Graduation Disparity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Graduation Disparity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Graduation Disparity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Graduation Disparity to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Graduation Disparity to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Graduation Disparity products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Graduation Disparity needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Graduation Disparity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Graduation Disparity 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 - What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 Graduation Disparity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Graduation Disparity, firm in the HBR case study What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? HBR case study mentions - Graduation Disparity 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Graduation Disparity 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Graduation Disparity is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Graduation Disparity needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Graduation Disparity to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Graduation Disparity 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?, in the dynamic environment Graduation Disparity has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Graduation Disparity has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Fred R. David, Meredith E. David, Forest R. David suggests that, Graduation Disparity 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.
Opportunities What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? | 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? are -
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 Graduation Disparity 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. Graduation Disparity can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Graduation Disparity 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Graduation Disparity 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
– Graduation Disparity 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Graduation Disparity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Graduation Disparity in the consumer business. Now Graduation Disparity 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 Graduation Disparity to increase its market reach. Graduation Disparity 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, Graduation Disparity 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, What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Graduation Disparity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 Graduation Disparity 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Graduation Disparity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 Graduation Disparity 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Graduation Disparity 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 Graduation Disparity to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Graduation Disparity 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Graduation Disparity 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today?, Graduation Disparity 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 Graduation Disparity.
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.
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 Graduation Disparity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Graduation Disparity needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Graduation Disparity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Graduation Disparity 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Graduation Disparity 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Graduation Disparity is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Graduation Disparity 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Graduation Disparity 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Graduation Disparity 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 What are Business Schools Doing for Business Today? 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 Graduation Disparity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
