Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster
Distance learning-that is, providing education to students who are separated by distance and in which the pedagogical material is planned and prepared by educational institutions-is a topic of regular interest in the popular and business press. In particular, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which are open-access online courses that allow for unlimited participation, as well as SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), are said to have revolutionized universities and the corporate education landscape. In this article we provide a nuanced analysis of the phenomenon of online distance learning. We first provide an overview of its historical evolution, and subsequently define and classify key concepts. We further discuss in detail the optimal target group in terms of participating students and teaching professors and propose corresponding frameworks for driving intrinsic student motivation and for choosing a successful online teacher. We also outline the benefits that institutions can achieve by offering online distance learning. Finally, we speak about the specific connection between online distance learning and social media by focusing on the difference between MOOCs based on traditional lecture formats (xMOOCs) and connectivist cMOOCs.
Swot Analysis of "Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster" written by Andreas M. Kaplan, Michael Haenlein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Distance Moocs facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, IT, Social platforms and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Distance Moocs, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Distance Moocs 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Distance Moocs
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Distance Moocs
Strengths Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Distance Moocs in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Distance Moocs is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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.
Learning organization
- Distance Moocs 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 Distance Moocs is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Distance Moocs 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Distance Moocs 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Distance Moocs 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Distance Moocs in the sector have low bargaining power. Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Distance Moocs to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Distance Moocs has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Distance Moocs in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Distance Moocs has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Distance Moocs 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Distance Moocs is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Distance Moocs 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 Distance Moocs in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Distance Moocs 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Distance Moocs 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Distance Moocs 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster, is just above the industry average. Distance Moocs 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andreas M. Kaplan, Michael Haenlein suggests that, Distance Moocs 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Distance Moocs has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Distance Moocs is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster HBR case study mentions - Distance Moocs 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster, in the dynamic environment Distance Moocs has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Distance Moocs has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Distance Moocs 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Distance Moocs is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster | 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Distance Moocs 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Distance Moocs 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, Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster, 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
– Distance Moocs can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Distance Moocs has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Distance Moocs to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster case study. Distance Moocs can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Distance Moocs can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Distance Moocs can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Distance Moocs operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
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 Distance Moocs 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 Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Distance Moocs 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. Distance Moocs 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Distance Moocs 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 Distance Moocs to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Distance Moocs in the consumer business. Now Distance Moocs can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Distance Moocs 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Distance Moocs to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Distance Moocs to increase its market reach. Distance Moocs 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Distance Moocs 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.
Threats Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster are -
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 Distance Moocs business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Distance Moocs 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Distance Moocs 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Distance Moocs with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster, Distance Moocs may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Distance Moocs in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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. Distance Moocs 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Distance Moocs 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Distance Moocs 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.
Environmental challenges
– Distance Moocs 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. Distance Moocs can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Distance Moocs can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Distance Moocs is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Higher Education and the Digital Revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, Social Media, and the Cookie Monster 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 Distance Moocs needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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