Case Study Description of SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success
Spinal Cord Injury Ontario is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Toronto that assists people with spinal cord injuries to achieve independence, self-reliance and full community participation. In early 2014, the marketing manager is trying to understand how best to assess performance against the organization's crucial but hard-to-measure goal of becoming the expert on living with a spinal cord injury in the province of Ontario. In addition, she wishes to develop a reporting system based on the indicators laid out in the existing balanced scorecard. This monthly dashboard will allow the new chief executive officer to manage the organization using a summary sheet of measures that highlights how it is performing on critical dimensions. She faces two crucial questions: How should internal reporting be performed? What would being successful at community leadership look like and how can performance against this goal be monitored?
Swot Analysis of "SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success" written by Neil Bendle includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spinal Cord facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spinal Cord, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spinal Cord 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spinal Cord
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 Spinal Cord
Strengths SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spinal Cord in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Spinal Cord in the sector have low bargaining power. SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Spinal Cord to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Spinal Cord 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Spinal Cord has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Spinal Cord 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.
High brand equity
– Spinal Cord has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Spinal Cord to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Spinal Cord
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Spinal Cord does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Spinal Cord 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 Spinal Cord is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Spinal Cord is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Spinal Cord has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Spinal Cord has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Spinal Cord 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 Neil Bendle 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Spinal Cord in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Spinal Cord 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success, in the dynamic environment Spinal Cord has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Spinal Cord has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Spinal Cord is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Spinal Cord 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. Spinal Cord 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Spinal Cord is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Spinal Cord needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Spinal Cord to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 Spinal Cord 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Spinal Cord 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 - SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Spinal Cord supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Spinal Cord vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Spinal Cord 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 Spinal Cord has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Spinal Cord 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.
Opportunities SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success | 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spinal Cord 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 Spinal Cord to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Spinal Cord can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Spinal Cord 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. Spinal Cord 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
– Spinal Cord can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Spinal Cord can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Spinal Cord operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Spinal Cord 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Spinal Cord 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.
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 Spinal Cord in the consumer business. Now Spinal Cord can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Spinal Cord has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Spinal Cord to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success case study. Spinal Cord can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Spinal Cord to increase its market reach. Spinal Cord 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Spinal Cord 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Spinal Cord 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Spinal Cord 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, SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success are -
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. Spinal Cord 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.
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 Spinal Cord in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Spinal Cord 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spinal Cord 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Spinal Cord 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.
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 Spinal Cord.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Spinal Cord 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.
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 Spinal Cord business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Spinal Cord 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. Spinal Cord can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Spinal Cord can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Spinal Cord needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Spinal Cord
– 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 Spinal Cord.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success 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 Spinal Cord needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
