Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis
In late 2009, the principal of the Lake Eola Charter School (LECS) in downtown Orlando, Florida completed a course on nonprofit branding at the Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center at a local college. She was energized and ready to apply the information she had learned to evaluate the school's competitive position and to determine its level of mission fulfillment and progress toward goals. Well-suited for running a school, with a doctorate in education administration, the principal had taken the class to shore up her understanding of planning for and managing a nonprofit organization (NPO). In her mind, the key lesson was the need for an environmental analysis to better understand the school's internal environment and external competitors in order to improve the position of the school vis-a-vis the community's educational needs. She employed an MBA intern to help her develop tools for an internal and external environmental scan. The intern had just wrapped up the data collection and analysis. The principal was ready to use the summer "down time" to make changes for the 2010 academic year, if only she knew how to proceed. This case is suitable for marketing strategy courses. The detailed treatment of environmental analysis could also make the case useful in business policy and strategy courses. Instructors will find the case particularly well-suited for classes on marketing, strategy and management in the area of public administration and nonprofit organizations.
Authors :: Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller
Swot Analysis of "Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis" written by Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eola Nonprofit facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eola Nonprofit, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eola Nonprofit 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eola Nonprofit
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Eola Nonprofit
Strengths Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eola Nonprofit in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Eola Nonprofit has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Eola Nonprofit is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Eola Nonprofit has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Eola Nonprofit 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 recruit top talent
– Eola Nonprofit is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Eola Nonprofit has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Eola Nonprofit to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Eola Nonprofit 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 Eola Nonprofit is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Eola Nonprofit to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Eola Nonprofit to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Eola Nonprofit is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Eola Nonprofit
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Eola Nonprofit does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eola Nonprofit 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eola Nonprofit in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis, in the dynamic environment Eola Nonprofit has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Eola Nonprofit has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Eola Nonprofit 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Eola Nonprofit products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Eola Nonprofit needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis HBR case study mentions - Eola Nonprofit 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller suggests that, Eola Nonprofit 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis, it seems that the employees of Eola Nonprofit don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Eola Nonprofit 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High 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 Eola Nonprofit supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Eola Nonprofit vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Eola Nonprofit, firm in the HBR case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Eola Nonprofit 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis | 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Eola Nonprofit 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Eola Nonprofit to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Eola Nonprofit can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eola Nonprofit 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, Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Eola Nonprofit 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Eola Nonprofit in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Eola Nonprofit 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Eola Nonprofit can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Eola Nonprofit can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Eola Nonprofit 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
– Eola Nonprofit can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Eola Nonprofit can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Eola Nonprofit 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. Eola Nonprofit 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Eola Nonprofit to increase its market reach. Eola Nonprofit 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.
Threats Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Eola Nonprofit 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 Eola Nonprofit
– 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 Eola Nonprofit.
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 Eola Nonprofit in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Eola Nonprofit 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 Eola Nonprofit is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Eola Nonprofit needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eola Nonprofit 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Eola Nonprofit with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Eola Nonprofit 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eola Nonprofit 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.
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 Eola Nonprofit.
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 Eola Nonprofit 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 Eola Nonprofit in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Lake Eola Charter School: Securing the Brand Through Environmental Analysis 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 Eola Nonprofit needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.