In the winter of 2001, the Quest Scholars Program faced strategic growth issues. Several months earlier--following five summers running a youth empowerment program at Stanford University for low-income, at-risk, bright high school students--Quest's founders had added a program at Harvard, and the organization had been granted nonprofit 501(c)3 status. Program graduates were gaining entry to top universities, but was college acceptance a viable definition of "success" in the eyes of the founders? How was success defined by the nonprofit's other stakeholders? Could the founders simultaneously refine their mission, replicate their program, and support a financially responsible and sustainable organization? With their first board of directors meeting fast approaching, Quest's founders face tough questions about the organization's future and their roles in it.
Authors :: William F. Meehan III, Lesley Koenig, Robert Ransom
Swot Analysis of "Quest Scholars Program" written by William F. Meehan III, Lesley Koenig, Robert Ransom includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Program Quest's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Quest Scholars Program case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Generational issues, Organizational culture and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Quest Scholars Program casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Quest Scholars Program
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Quest Scholars Program case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Program Quest's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Quest Scholars Program case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Program Quest's
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 Program Quest's
Strengths Quest Scholars Program | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Program Quest's in Quest Scholars Program Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Program Quest's 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 Program Quest's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Quest Scholars Program Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Program Quest's 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 Program Quest's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Program Quest's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Program Quest's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Quest Scholars Program are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Program Quest's 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 William F. Meehan III, Lesley Koenig, Robert Ransom 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
– Program Quest's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Quest Scholars Program 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Program Quest's in the sector have low bargaining power. Quest Scholars Program has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Program Quest's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Quest Scholars Program firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Program Quest's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Program Quest's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Quest Scholars Program are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Program Quest's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Program Quest's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Program Quest's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Program Quest's, firm in the HBR case study Quest Scholars Program needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Quest Scholars Program, in the dynamic environment Program Quest's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Program Quest's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Program Quest's has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Quest Scholars Program should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Program Quest's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Program Quest's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Quest Scholars Program, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Quest Scholars Program 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 Program Quest's 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Program Quest's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Quest Scholars Program can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Quest Scholars Program that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Quest Scholars Program can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Program Quest's is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Quest Scholars Program 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 Program Quest's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Quest Scholars Program, is just above the industry average. Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program | 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 Quest Scholars Program are -
Loyalty marketing
– Program Quest's 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Program Quest's 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. Program Quest's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Buying journey improvements
– Program Quest's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Quest Scholars Program 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Program Quest's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Program Quest's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Program Quest's can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Program Quest's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Program Quest's 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, Quest Scholars Program, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Program Quest's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Program Quest's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Program Quest's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Program Quest's 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.
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. Program Quest's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Program Quest's in the consumer business. Now Program Quest's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Quest Scholars Program External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Quest Scholars Program are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Program Quest's 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 Program Quest's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Program Quest's 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.
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. Program Quest's 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.
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. Program Quest's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Program Quest's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Program Quest's 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.
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 Program Quest's
– 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 Program Quest's.
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 Program Quest's in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Program Quest's 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 Quest Scholars Program .
Regulatory challenges
– Program Quest's 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Program Quest's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Quest Scholars Program 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 Quest Scholars Program 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 Quest Scholars Program 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 Quest Scholars Program 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 Quest Scholars Program 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 Program Quest's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
