Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
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
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 - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
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 -
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.
Learning organization
- Blooms Hope 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 Blooms Hope is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Blooms Hope to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Blooms Hope to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Blooms Hope in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Blooms Hope in the sector have low bargaining power. Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Blooms Hope to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Margaret McKee, Ethan Pancer, Chantal Hervieux suggests that, Blooms Hope 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Blooms Hope 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. Blooms Hope 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.
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 Blooms Hope supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Blooms Hope vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Blooms Hope 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.
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.
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Blooms Hope, firm in the HBR case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den HBR case study mentions - Blooms Hope 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, in the dynamic environment Blooms Hope has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Blooms Hope has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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 -
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Blooms Hope 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 Blooms Hope to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Blooms Hope has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Blooms Hope to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den case study. Blooms Hope can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Blooms Hope 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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Blooms Hope can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den 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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Blooms Hope 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.
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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Blooms Hope 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.
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 -
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Blooms Hope 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 Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Blooms Hope 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Hope Blooms: Marketing a Social Enterprise after Dragons' Den, Blooms Hope 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Blooms Hope is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.