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Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den


Hope Blooms was a social enterprise based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, that grew its own garden produce and manufactured and sold a line of herb dressings. For a small social enterprise, it was remarkably successful. Hope Blooms had appeared on CBC's Dragons' Den and was constantly selling out of its products in local markets. In addition, it had secured placement in a national grocery retailer and was continuing to fulfill its social mission of empowering marginalized youth by providing education on food, sustainability, and entrepreneurship issues. These successes started to create a series of problems associated with production and capacity shortfalls associated with using a youth volunteer workforce, stock outs, and potential mission drift. As the executive director of Hope Blooms prepared for the final board of directors' meeting in 2015, she wondered how to solve two of the organization's fundamental problems: How could the retail operations provide stable employment for its youth members? How could Hope Blooms increase its profits to continue to expand its activities? Margaret McKee is affiliated with Saint Mary's University. Ethan Pancer is affiliated with Saint Mary's University. Chantal Hervieux is affiliated with Saint Mary's University.

Authors :: Margaret McKee, Ethan Pancer, Chantal Hervieux

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den" written by Margaret McKee, Ethan Pancer, Chantal Hervieux includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Blooms Hope facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Blooms Hope, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Blooms Hope
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 Blooms Hope




Strengths Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Blooms Hope in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Blooms Hope is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Blooms Hope in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High brand equity

– Blooms Hope has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Blooms Hope to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Training and development

– Blooms Hope has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Blooms Hope is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Blooms Hope is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Blooms Hope digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Blooms Hope 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Blooms Hope has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Blooms Hope 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Blooms Hope 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 Blooms Hope

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Blooms Hope does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den are -

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Blooms Hope is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Blooms Hope needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Blooms Hope to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Lack of clear differentiation of Blooms Hope products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Blooms Hope needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Blooms Hope has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Blooms Hope 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 star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Blooms Hope has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Blooms Hope 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, it seems that the employees of Blooms Hope 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, Blooms Hope is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, is just above the industry average. Blooms Hope needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.




Opportunities Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den | 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den are -

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Blooms Hope is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Blooms Hope can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Blooms Hope 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Blooms Hope 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.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Blooms Hope to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Blooms Hope can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Blooms Hope operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

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 Blooms Hope in the consumer business. Now Blooms Hope can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

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. Blooms Hope can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Blooms Hope to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Blooms Hope to increase its market reach. Blooms Hope 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Blooms Hope can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

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. Blooms Hope can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Blooms Hope 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.




Threats Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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.

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. Blooms Hope can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Blooms Hope with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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 Blooms Hope.

Regulatory challenges

– Blooms Hope 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 disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Blooms Hope business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Environmental challenges

– Blooms Hope 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. Blooms Hope can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

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. Blooms Hope 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.

Increasing wage structure of Blooms Hope

– 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 Blooms Hope.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Blooms Hope 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.

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 Blooms Hope 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. Blooms Hope needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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 Blooms Hope needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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