Case Study Description of Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat
In June 2016, Sumayyah Sayed, a resident of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, decided to donate food to those who needed it through a sharing fridge for the full month of Ramadan. When she noted the extent of the need for more help, she turned to social media. What followed demonstrated the power of social media campaigns and the collective management of supply chains and perhaps initiated a new entrepreneurial venture. Within one month, the Facebook Inc. group Sayed had created to support her Ramadan Sharing Fridges initiative had 22,000 members, 165 donating fridges had been set up, and the story was creating waves in international media. What kind of entrepreneurial style was this? Was it sustainable? Was it an alternative model that could be adopted by others who aspired to set up business ventures, or was it a fluke? Gita Bajaj and Bernard Buisson are affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Dubai.
Swot Analysis of "Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat" written by Gita Bajaj, Bernard Buisson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fridges Ramadan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fridges Ramadan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fridges Ramadan 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fridges Ramadan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fridges Ramadan
Strengths Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fridges Ramadan in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Fridges Ramadan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fridges Ramadan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fridges Ramadan 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fridges Ramadan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fridges Ramadan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Fridges Ramadan has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fridges Ramadan to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Fridges Ramadan is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Fridges Ramadan 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 Fridges Ramadan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fridges Ramadan 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Fridges Ramadan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fridges Ramadan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fridges Ramadan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fridges Ramadan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Fridges Ramadan 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 Gita Bajaj, Bernard Buisson 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fridges Ramadan 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fridges Ramadan 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat HBR case study mentions - Fridges Ramadan 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fridges Ramadan, firm in the HBR case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fridges Ramadan is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fridges Ramadan 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 - Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fridges Ramadan is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fridges Ramadan 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. Fridges Ramadan 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 Fridges Ramadan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fridges Ramadan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fridges Ramadan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fridges Ramadan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fridges Ramadan 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.
Opportunities Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat | 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fridges Ramadan 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fridges Ramadan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fridges Ramadan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fridges Ramadan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat case study. Fridges Ramadan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fridges Ramadan to increase its market reach. Fridges Ramadan 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fridges Ramadan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fridges Ramadan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Fridges Ramadan can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fridges Ramadan 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fridges Ramadan 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Fridges Ramadan 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. Fridges Ramadan 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fridges Ramadan 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 Fridges Ramadan 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 Fridges Ramadan to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fridges Ramadan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fridges Ramadan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Threats Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fridges Ramadan in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat, Fridges Ramadan may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fridges Ramadan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Fridges Ramadan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fridges Ramadan 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.
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 Fridges Ramadan in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fridges Ramadan with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fridges Ramadan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fridges Ramadan needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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 Fridges Ramadan.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fridges Ramadan is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fridges Ramadan 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fridges Ramadan 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fridges Ramadan 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Ramadan Sharing Fridges: Keeping a Non-Profit Afloat 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 Fridges Ramadan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
