Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic"
Supplement to case HEC183. This case examines the challenges faced by a grassroots non-profit struggling to carry out its mission and stabilize its finances in an increasingly competitive and demanding funding environment over a twenty-year period. It examines the issues faced by non-profits as they chart a course for growth despite precarious funding and divergent stakeholder expectations, examining the often difficult and paradoxical decisions that non-profit managers must make to ensure the survival of their organizations. Santropol Roulant (SR) is a small, community-based non-profit offering a meals-on-wheels service to individuals living with a loss of autonomy. Founded in 1995, SR's mission is to provide an important service to the community while enabling young people to gain valuable work and leadership experience. Despite numerous setbacks, many typical of those encountered by grassroots non-profits, SR managed to grow and thrive without compromising its "ethos" and happily celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2015.
Swot Analysis of "Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic"" written by Charlotte Cloutier, Fannie Couture includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Roulant Santropol facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic"
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roulant Santropol, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roulant Santropol
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Roulant Santropol
Strengths Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Roulant Santropol in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Roulant Santropol is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Roulant Santropol is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Roulant Santropol
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Roulant Santropol does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Roulant Santropol has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Roulant Santropol to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Roulant Santropol 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 Roulant Santropol in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Roulant Santropol has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Roulant Santropol digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Roulant Santropol 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Roulant Santropol is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Roulant Santropol in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Roulant Santropol 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 Roulant Santropol is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Roulant Santropol has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Roulant Santropol is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Roulant Santropol needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Roulant Santropol to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic", it seems that the employees of Roulant Santropol 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Roulant Santropol 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 - Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic", is just above the industry average. Roulant Santropol 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Roulant Santropol is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Roulant Santropol 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Roulant Santropol, firm in the HBR case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Roulant Santropol is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Roulant Santropol 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" | 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Roulant Santropol 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Roulant Santropol can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Roulant Santropol can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Roulant Santropol 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Roulant Santropol 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Roulant Santropol 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 Roulant Santropol to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Roulant Santropol has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Roulant Santropol to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" case study. Roulant Santropol can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Roulant Santropol to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Roulant Santropol can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Roulant Santropol operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Roulant Santropol can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Roulant Santropol 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Roulant Santropol can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Roulant Santropol in the consumer business. Now Roulant Santropol can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Roulant Santropol 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
– Roulant Santropol 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic", Roulant Santropol may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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. Roulant Santropol needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Roulant Santropol is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Roulant Santropol has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Roulant Santropol needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Environmental challenges
– Roulant Santropol 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. Roulant Santropol can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" .
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 Roulant Santropol in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Roulant Santropol 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.
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 Roulant Santropol business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part B: Sustaining and Disseminating the "Magic" 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 Roulant Santropol needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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