International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Didier Cherpitel, CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), is implementing a new strategy that will fundamentally change the role of its International Secretariat. The organization is in the early stages of implementing a best practice tool called the National Society Self-Assessment and Cherpitel's challenge is to move forward with the implementation of this tool, while ensuring that the International Secretariat takes the necessary actions to strengthen IFRC's brand and image.
Swot Analysis of "International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies" written by John A. Quelch, Nathalie Laidler includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Red Crescent facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Strategy execution and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Red Crescent, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Red Crescent 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Red Crescent
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 Red Crescent
Strengths International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Red Crescent in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Red Crescent 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Red Crescent is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Red Crescent 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 Red Crescent is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Red Crescent 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Red Crescent has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Red Crescent 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Red Crescent digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Red Crescent 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Red Crescent 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 Red Crescent in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Red Crescent in the sector have low bargaining power. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Red Crescent to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Red Crescent is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Red Crescent 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 John A. Quelch, Nathalie Laidler 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.
Training and development
– Red Crescent has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Red Crescent to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Red Crescent to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Red Crescent 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Red Crescent 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Red Crescent is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 Red Crescent 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Red Crescent, firm in the HBR case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Red Crescent 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Red Crescent 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it seems that the employees of Red Crescent 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Red Crescent 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Red Crescent 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Red Crescent products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Red Crescent needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are -
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. Red Crescent 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. Red Crescent 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Red Crescent 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Red Crescent 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, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Red Crescent 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Red Crescent 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Red Crescent has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Red Crescent to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies case study. Red Crescent can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Red Crescent can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Red Crescent 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Red Crescent 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Red Crescent to increase its market reach. Red Crescent 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Red Crescent can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Red Crescent 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Red Crescent 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Red Crescent to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Red Crescent 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies .
Increasing wage structure of Red Crescent
– 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 Red Crescent.
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. Red Crescent needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Red Crescent with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Red Crescent 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 .
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 Red Crescent in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Red Crescent 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.
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. Red Crescent 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Red Crescent 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Red Crescent 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.
Environmental challenges
– Red Crescent 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. Red Crescent can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 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 Red Crescent needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
