Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business
In June 2013, the founder of Healing Through Humour, a comedy school for people with mental illness, considered his options to overcome the barriers to growth for his not-for-profit organization. The school, located in donated space in the offices of the Schizophrenia Society of Saskatchewan in Regina, was designed to build self-esteem and life skills for people suffering from mental illness, to raise public awareness about mental health issues and to break down barriers of mental health discrimination in the community. The classes were free to encourage attendance by those with limited means. Money from ticket sales for the class's public performances was used to fund performance and operating costs, but there was little left over to expand the organization's promotional budget beyond maintaining a basic website and Facebook page. Low attendance for both the classes and the performances underlined the need to identify and access target market segments to increase community awareness of this support service, grow the class size to a critical mass and secure ongoing funding to make this health care initiative sustainable.
Swot Analysis of "Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business" written by Michael Taylor, Tatiana Levit includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mental Humour facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mental Humour, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mental Humour 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mental Humour
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 Mental Humour
Strengths Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mental Humour in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mental Humour in the sector have low bargaining power. Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mental Humour to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Mental Humour is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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.
Analytics focus
– Mental Humour 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 Michael Taylor, Tatiana Levit 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.
Organizational Resilience of Mental Humour
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mental Humour does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Mental Humour is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mental Humour has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mental Humour 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mental Humour is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mental Humour 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mental Humour to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mental Humour to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Mental Humour has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mental Humour 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.
Weaknesses Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mental Humour 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.
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 Mental Humour supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mental Humour vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mental Humour 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mental Humour is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Mental Humour needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mental Humour to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mental Humour products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mental Humour needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mental Humour 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mental Humour 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mental Humour 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business, in the dynamic environment Mental Humour has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mental Humour has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mental Humour 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 - Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business | 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mental Humour can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mental Humour operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mental Humour is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mental Humour 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 Mental Humour to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mental Humour 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mental Humour 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 Mental Humour 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.
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. Mental Humour 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. Mental Humour 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mental Humour can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mental Humour can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Mental Humour 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mental Humour 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mental Humour has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mental Humour to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business case study. Mental Humour can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mental Humour in the consumer business. Now Mental Humour can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mental Humour 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mental Humour 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.
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. Mental Humour needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Mental Humour business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Mental Humour 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mental Humour has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mental Humour needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mental Humour with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mental Humour 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business .
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mental Humour can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mental Humour 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.
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 Mental Humour in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 Healing Through Humour: Mixing Mental Health, Comedy and Business 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 Mental Humour needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.