Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.The business of surrogacy, a boutique practice with client costs upwards of $100,000, allowed couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations to build families. This case examines Circle Surrogacy (CS), one of the premier surrogacy agencies in the world, as its president and founder, John Weltman, was about to share an executive presentation with his core management team where he would recommend an option to outsource its surrogacy services. While the changing cultural and regulatory environment had made surrogacy possible for more people, it remained cost-prohibitive for the majority of its eligible audience. Weltman's proposal, if enacted, would create a new opportunity for CS, increasingly faced with competition from other agencies, to offer lower cost surrogacies to intended parents. However, the launch of an outsourced surrogacy service would threaten the company's core value proposition and challenge its prevailing high-touch, premium strategy. How should Weltman and CS best proceed?
Swot Analysis of "Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy" written by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Blake Landro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Surrogacy Cs facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, IT, Regulation, Work-life balance and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Surrogacy Cs, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Surrogacy Cs 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Surrogacy Cs
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 Surrogacy Cs
Strengths Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Surrogacy Cs in Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Surrogacy Cs is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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
– Surrogacy Cs 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Surrogacy Cs 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 Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Blake Landro 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Surrogacy Cs 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Surrogacy Cs to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Surrogacy Cs to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Surrogacy Cs in the sector have low bargaining power. Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Surrogacy Cs to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Surrogacy Cs in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Surrogacy Cs 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Surrogacy Cs is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Surrogacy Cs has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Surrogacy Cs 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Surrogacy Cs 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.
High brand equity
– Surrogacy Cs has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Surrogacy Cs to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Surrogacy Cs 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Surrogacy Cs 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 - Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Surrogacy Cs is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy, is just above the industry average. Surrogacy Cs 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Surrogacy Cs, firm in the HBR case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy HBR case study mentions - Surrogacy Cs 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy, in the dynamic environment Surrogacy Cs has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Surrogacy Cs has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Surrogacy Cs 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Surrogacy Cs is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Surrogacy Cs needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Surrogacy Cs to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Surrogacy Cs 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.
Opportunities Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy | 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Surrogacy Cs 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, Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Surrogacy Cs can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Surrogacy Cs is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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.
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 Surrogacy Cs 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Surrogacy Cs to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Surrogacy Cs 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Surrogacy Cs to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Surrogacy Cs 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Surrogacy Cs 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Surrogacy Cs 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Surrogacy Cs can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Surrogacy Cs operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Surrogacy Cs 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 Surrogacy Cs to increase its market reach. Surrogacy Cs 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 Surrogacy Cs 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.
Threats Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Surrogacy Cs 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy .
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. Surrogacy Cs can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Surrogacy Cs needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Surrogacy Cs is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
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 Surrogacy Cs in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Surrogacy Cs with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Surrogacy Cs 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Surrogacy Cs 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.
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 Surrogacy Cs.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy, Surrogacy Cs 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 Surrogacy Cs 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.
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. Surrogacy Cs 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy 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 Surrogacy Cs needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.