Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning
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 A: A New Beginning" 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 A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning
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 A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning | 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 A: A New Beginning Harvard Business Review case study are -
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 A: A New Beginning Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Roulant Santropol 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Roulant Santropol has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roulant Santropol 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.
Analytics focus
– Roulant Santropol 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 Charlotte Cloutier, Fannie Couture 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Roulant Santropol 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Roulant Santropol is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
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.
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.
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.
Weaknesses Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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 Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning, in the dynamic environment Roulant Santropol has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Roulant Santropol 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, Roulant Santropol 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Roulant Santropol 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. Roulant Santropol 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Roulant Santropol supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Roulant Santropol vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Roulant Santropol is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Roulant Santropol 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.
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 A: A New Beginning needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 Roulant Santropol has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
Opportunities Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning | 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 A: A New Beginning are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Roulant Santropol to increase its market reach. Roulant Santropol 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 Roulant Santropol 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 A: A New Beginning case study. Roulant Santropol can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
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 A: A New Beginning - 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.
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 Roulant Santropol 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.
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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Roulant Santropol 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. Roulant Santropol 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.
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.
Threats Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning are -
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roulant Santropol in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Roulant Santropol can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning, 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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 A: A New Beginning .
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.
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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Growing Pains at Santropol Roulant, Part A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning 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 A: A New Beginning 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.
