Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India
By examining Ekal Vidyalaya (Ekal), a non-profit network of schools in India, this case focuses on the classic challenge faced by organizations that grow through replication (e.g., McDonald's, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart): how can they continue to drive growth when their well of attractive locations begins to dry? In 1986, a group of social entrepreneurs reimagined education in India, developing a low-cost, "one-teacher school" model to provide educational access in regions that had proven cost prohibitive for government schools. They founded Ekal to fulfill the vision of a network of 100,000 one-teacher schools throughout rural India. More than a quarter century later, the Ekal network now includes more than 54,000 schools. However, with the emergence of India as an economic power, government schools have received the mandate and funds to extend their reach to many of the regions that Ekal serves. It was time to for Ekal to reevaluate their vision. Was the target of 100,000 schools, which had driven their growth thus far, still the best path forward? Or was it time to declare their mission of universal access to education a success in the regions that government schools now served and begin to scale back from those areas?
Authors :: David Drake, Namrata Bhattacharya, Pooja Godbole, Amrita Saigal
Swot Analysis of "Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India" written by David Drake, Namrata Bhattacharya, Pooja Godbole, Amrita Saigal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ekal Schools facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ekal Schools, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ekal Schools 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ekal Schools
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 Ekal Schools
Strengths Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ekal Schools in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ekal Schools 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ekal Schools in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ekal Schools in the sector have low bargaining power. Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ekal Schools to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ekal Schools 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 Ekal Schools in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Ekal Schools has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ekal Schools digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ekal Schools 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.
High brand equity
– Ekal Schools has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ekal Schools to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Ekal Schools is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ekal Schools to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ekal Schools to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ekal Schools 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
– Ekal Schools is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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
- Ekal Schools 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 Ekal Schools is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ekal Schools 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India HBR case study mentions - Ekal Schools 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ekal Schools is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ekal Schools, firm in the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David Drake, Namrata Bhattacharya, Pooja Godbole, Amrita Saigal suggests that, Ekal Schools is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Schools 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India, it seems that the employees of Ekal Schools 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India, is just above the industry average. Ekal Schools 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ekal Schools 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ekal Schools is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Ekal Schools needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ekal Schools to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India | 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India are -
Loyalty marketing
– Ekal Schools 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ekal Schools is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ekal Schools 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ekal Schools can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ekal Schools operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Ekal Schools 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ekal Schools 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, Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ekal Schools can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ekal Schools 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ekal Schools can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ekal Schools 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 Ekal Schools to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ekal Schools to increase its market reach. Ekal Schools 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ekal Schools 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.
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. Ekal Schools can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India are -
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. Ekal Schools needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution 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.
Increasing wage structure of Ekal Schools
– 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 Ekal Schools.
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. Ekal Schools can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India, Ekal Schools 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ekal Schools in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ekal Schools has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ekal Schools 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.
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.
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 Ekal Schools.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ekal Schools is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Ekal Schools business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ekal Schools 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ekal Schools 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Vidyalaya: Education for Rural India 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 Ekal Schools needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.