M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising
M-Changa was one of the fastest-growing fundraising platforms in Kenya, allowing Kenyans to use text messages on their mobile phones to send, receive, and track donated funds as well as solicit donations from family and friends. The young cofounders, Kyai Mullei and David Mark, had grown the company quickly by leveraging partnerships with large banks, mobile money operators, and NGOs. By April 2015, M-Changa had a team of five people serving 25,000 users. Now, it stood at a crossroads. M-Changa's board members had expressed concern that its multitude of partnerships may have spread the company too thin. The board urged Mullei and Mark to focus on the partnerships that would reap the most value for the company in the long run. Should M-Changa pursue partnerships with mobile money operators and banks that made it possible for users to transfer money conveniently and at a low cost, or instead focus on partners that allowed M-Changa to test new customer segments and increase sales? In addition, there was an estimated US$7 billion fundraising market across East Africa, so Mullei was tempted to test neighboring markets. Students will step into the shoes of Kyai Mullei as he and his team refine their partnership strategy at a crucial point in time for the venture.
Swot Analysis of "M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising" written by Sarit Markovich, Nilima Achwal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Changa Mullei facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Growth strategy, Innovation, International business, Joint ventures, Pricing, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Changa Mullei, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Changa Mullei 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Changa Mullei
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 Changa Mullei
Strengths M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Changa Mullei in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Changa Mullei 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 Changa Mullei in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Changa Mullei is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Changa Mullei 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.
Organizational Resilience of Changa Mullei
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Changa Mullei does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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
– M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Changa Mullei to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Changa Mullei to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Changa Mullei has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Changa Mullei 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 Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Changa Mullei digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Changa Mullei 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Changa Mullei 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Changa Mullei 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Changa Mullei in the sector have low bargaining power. M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Changa Mullei to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Changa Mullei 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 Changa Mullei is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising HBR case study mentions - Changa Mullei 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 Changa Mullei has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Changa Mullei 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Changa Mullei 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising, in the dynamic environment Changa Mullei has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Changa Mullei has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising, it seems that the employees of Changa Mullei 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, Changa Mullei 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Changa Mullei is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Changa Mullei 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 Changa Mullei 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising, 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.
Opportunities M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising | 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Changa Mullei 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Changa Mullei 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Changa Mullei is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Changa Mullei 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Changa Mullei 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, M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Changa Mullei 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.
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. Changa Mullei can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Changa Mullei 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Changa Mullei to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Changa Mullei 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.
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 Changa Mullei in the consumer business. Now Changa Mullei can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Changa Mullei 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.
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. Changa Mullei 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. Changa Mullei 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Changa Mullei to increase its market reach. Changa Mullei 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.
Threats M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Changa Mullei with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Changa Mullei 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Changa Mullei has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Changa Mullei 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.
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. Changa Mullei can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Changa Mullei 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. Changa Mullei can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Changa Mullei 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Changa Mullei 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Changa Mullei 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 Changa Mullei in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Changa Mullei business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Changa Mullei
– 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 Changa Mullei.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 M-Changa: Leveraging Kenya's Mobile Money Market for Community Fundraising 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 Changa Mullei needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
