Case Study Description of Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B)
Supplement to case KS1235. In October 2015, two senior California officials: Marybel Batjer, Secretary for Government Operations, and Michael Wilkening, Undersecretary for the Health and Human Services Agency seized on an idea that had the potential to turn the state's long dysfunctional technology procurement process on its head. After years of planning, California was about to request bids for a new child welfare management system to replace a twenty-year-old technology that, as part of the country's largest child welfare program, was accessed by approximately 25,000 state and county employees, to serve millions of California's children. The request for bids called for a "waterfall" approach to software development, where all aspects of the project would follow a pre-ordained sequence and likely cost the state nearly half a billion dollars. Just weeks before the request was to be released Batjer and Wilkening met with former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and members of a tech nonprofit, Code for America, who warned that both the waterfall approach and the large size of the project posed significant risks. First, they proposed an alternative "architecture" that would break up the "monolith" proposal into its component parts. Rather than build and replace one giant system with another, why not replace the system in parts-or in modules? Second, for each of these modules, teams of programmers and social workers could work together to build a prototype and iterate till the final product satisfied the needs of the state-in a process known as "agile" development. But could California's bureaucracy, with its stringent procurement rules pivot to a modular approach? And could Batjer and Wilkening convince state staff and county partners to experiment with agile development, a methodology never attempted in California government before? Cracking the Monolith (B)A? is the second part of a two-part case set, A?Cracking the Monolith (A) and (B),A? intended for use in a two-class sequence.
Swot Analysis of "Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B)" written by David Eaves, Anjani Datla includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Monolith Batjer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Monolith Batjer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Monolith Batjer 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Monolith Batjer
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Monolith Batjer
Strengths Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Monolith Batjer in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Monolith Batjer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Monolith Batjer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Monolith Batjer 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Monolith Batjer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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
- Monolith Batjer 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 Monolith Batjer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Monolith Batjer in the sector have low bargaining power. Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Monolith Batjer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Monolith Batjer digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Monolith Batjer 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Monolith Batjer 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Monolith Batjer 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
– Monolith Batjer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Monolith Batjer 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Monolith Batjer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Monolith Batjer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Monolith Batjer 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 Monolith Batjer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Monolith Batjer 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 David Eaves, Anjani Datla 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.
Weaknesses Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Monolith Batjer has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Monolith Batjer even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Monolith Batjer is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Monolith Batjer, firm in the HBR case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B), in the dynamic environment Monolith Batjer has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Monolith Batjer has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Monolith Batjer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Monolith Batjer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Monolith Batjer has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) HBR case study mentions - Monolith Batjer 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Monolith Batjer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Monolith Batjer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Monolith Batjer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Monolith Batjer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Monolith Batjer 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B), it seems that the employees of Monolith Batjer 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.
Opportunities Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) | 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Monolith Batjer 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Monolith Batjer 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 Global Business 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. Monolith Batjer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Monolith Batjer 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, Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Monolith Batjer in the consumer business. Now Monolith Batjer can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Monolith Batjer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Monolith Batjer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) case study. Monolith Batjer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Monolith Batjer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Monolith Batjer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Monolith Batjer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Monolith Batjer can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Monolith Batjer 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Monolith Batjer 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Monolith Batjer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Monolith Batjer 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Monolith Batjer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Monolith Batjer 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Monolith Batjer 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.
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. Monolith Batjer will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Technology 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.
Environmental challenges
– Monolith Batjer 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. Monolith Batjer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Monolith Batjer 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.
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 Monolith Batjer.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Monolith Batjer 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B), Monolith Batjer may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Monolith Batjer is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Monolith Batjer
– 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 Monolith Batjer.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Monolith Batjer in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Cracking the Monolith: California's Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (B) 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 Monolith Batjer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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