Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan
The case documents a board room scenario where the Directors of PEN, a not-for profit organization, have met to re-consider an important decision; either wait for the city government's approval regarding allotment of government schools or consider other options, such as building own schools. Having completed several rounds of unsuccessful negotiations with the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) the founders are feeling agitated and disappointed. Hence, at this point, the members are considering the organizational models of CARE and TCF; two well-known NGOs of Pakistan, and aim to finalize the strategic decision, based on the assessment of the two organizational models, given PEN's mission, vision, organizational, human resource, and financial capabilities.
Swot Analysis of "Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan" written by Arif Butt, Shezeen Hemani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pen Pakistan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan casestudy better are - – technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pen Pakistan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pen Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pen Pakistan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pen Pakistan
Strengths Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pen Pakistan in Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pen Pakistan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pen Pakistan has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pen Pakistan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pen Pakistan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pen Pakistan 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)
– Pen Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pen Pakistan in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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.
Organizational Resilience of Pen Pakistan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pen Pakistan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pen Pakistan in the sector have low bargaining power. Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pen Pakistan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Pen Pakistan 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
– Pen Pakistan 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 Arif Butt, Shezeen Hemani 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pen Pakistan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pen Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pen Pakistan 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pen Pakistan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pen Pakistan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan, it seems that the employees of Pen Pakistan 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
Pen Pakistan 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pen Pakistan 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. Pen Pakistan 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan HBR case study mentions - Pen Pakistan 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pen Pakistan 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pen Pakistan is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pen Pakistan, firm in the HBR case study Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pen Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Pen Pakistan has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan | 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan are -
Manufacturing automation
– Pen Pakistan can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pen Pakistan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pen Pakistan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pen Pakistan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Pen Pakistan can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pen Pakistan 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 Pen Pakistan to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pen Pakistan 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.
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 Pen Pakistan in the consumer business. Now Pen Pakistan can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pen Pakistan 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, Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pen Pakistan 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pen Pakistan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pen Pakistan to increase its market reach. Pen Pakistan 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pen Pakistan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pen Pakistan 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.
Threats Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pen Pakistan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pen Pakistan needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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 Pen Pakistan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pen Pakistan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pen Pakistan 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan, Pen Pakistan may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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 Pen Pakistan with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pen Pakistan is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pen Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan .
Environmental challenges
– Pen Pakistan 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. Pen Pakistan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Pen Pakistan.
Regulatory challenges
– Pen Pakistan 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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 Pen Pakistan in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Progressive Education Network (PEN): Creating Social Impact in Pakistan 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 Pen Pakistan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
