A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda
On February 5, 2012, the founder of McDonald Kinley Emerson, a consultancy in Toronto, Canada, was asked to give a talk about country branding. She decided to focus on the efforts of Racepoint, a U.S. marketing services agency, to reshape the image of Rwanda. As it attempted to shift perceptions of the country from war-torn and chaotic, Racepoint's campaign attracted controversy amid allegations that wrongdoings were being glossed over in favour of a tourist- and business-friendly image. In August 2011, the publication of documents outlining the contractual agreement between Racepoint and the current Rwandan government sparked scrutiny of the government's perceived remaking of the country's image. Can a country overcome its reputation for genocide and violence? Should countries actively use public relations tactics to change or reinforce their reputations in the same way that corporations do?
Swot Analysis of "A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda" written by Mary Weil, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Racepoint Rwanda facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Racepoint Rwanda, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Racepoint Rwanda
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 Racepoint Rwanda
Strengths A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Racepoint Rwanda in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Racepoint Rwanda is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Racepoint Rwanda digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Racepoint Rwanda is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Racepoint Rwanda is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Racepoint Rwanda has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Analytics focus
– Racepoint Rwanda 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 Mary Weil, Ken Mark 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Learning organization
- Racepoint Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Racepoint Rwanda has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Racepoint Rwanda to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Racepoint Rwanda is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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.
Weaknesses A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda HBR case study mentions - Racepoint Rwanda 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda, in the dynamic environment Racepoint Rwanda has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Racepoint Rwanda has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda, it seems that the employees of Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Racepoint Rwanda is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Racepoint Rwanda products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Racepoint Rwanda is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Racepoint Rwanda 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. Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Racepoint Rwanda 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mary Weil, Ken Mark suggests that, Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda | 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Racepoint Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda in the consumer business. Now Racepoint Rwanda can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Racepoint Rwanda to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Racepoint Rwanda is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Racepoint Rwanda can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Racepoint Rwanda operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Racepoint Rwanda 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.
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. Racepoint Rwanda can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Racepoint Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Racepoint Rwanda can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Racepoint Rwanda 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
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. Racepoint Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Racepoint Rwanda is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Racepoint Rwanda in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Racepoint Rwanda needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Racepoint Rwanda with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Racepoint Rwanda 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, Racepoint Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda .
Environmental challenges
– Racepoint Rwanda 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. Racepoint Rwanda can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Racepoint Rwanda 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda, Racepoint Rwanda may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 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 Racepoint Rwanda needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
