Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up
In 2012, amid much fanfare, Peru's President Ollanta Humala launched an ambitious program on early childhood development called Cuna Mas. The program, based on a successful home visiting intervention in Jamaica, was designed to improve the cognitive and emotional development of children below the age of three, living in poverty. The government's aim was to scale the program nationwide. Initially, despite the logistical challenges of reaching rural communities in a geographically diverse country-from communities residing high up in the Andes to those deep in the Amazon jungle-the program grew at a rapid rate, increasing coverage by 50 percent or more each year between 2012 and 2015. By early 2016, however, Cuna Mas encountered a formidable set of challenges. Amid political pressure to increase coverage quickly, the program had to ensure that it continued to deliver a quality service-even as Cuna Mas staff navigated the delicate task of convincing communities to adopt a program that, at its heart, relied on the willingness of families to let strangers into their homes. Cuna Mas staff was nonetheless hopeful. In many instances, it was the first social program to reach remote, vulnerable populations across Peru. But some civil society groups that had initially hailed President Humala for focusing on early childhood now argued that the program was hobbled by operational challenges that threatened the long-term sustainability of the program. As the April 2016 elections loomed on the horizon a crucial question about Humala's flagship program lingered. Could Cuna Mas deliver with quality at scale? Case number 2115.0
Swot Analysis of "Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up" written by Anjani Datla, Julie Boatright Wilson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cuna Mas facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Generational issues, Government, Strategy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cuna Mas, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cuna Mas
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 Cuna Mas
Strengths Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cuna Mas in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cuna Mas is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Cuna Mas is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Cuna Mas is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cuna Mas 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cuna Mas to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cuna Mas to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cuna Mas has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cuna Mas 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Cuna Mas has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cuna Mas to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cuna Mas in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cuna Mas is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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.
Weaknesses Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cuna Mas 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. Cuna Mas 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cuna Mas, firm in the HBR case study Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Cuna Mas supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cuna Mas vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up, is just above the industry average. Cuna Mas needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cuna Mas 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Cuna Mas 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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, Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up HBR case study mentions - Cuna Mas 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cuna Mas products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cuna Mas needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up | 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up are -
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. Cuna Mas can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cuna Mas 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. Cuna Mas 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.
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 Cuna Mas in the consumer business. Now Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cuna Mas to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up case study. Cuna Mas 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
– Cuna Mas can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cuna Mas 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cuna Mas can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Cuna Mas can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas 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, Cuna Mas 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cuna Mas to increase its market reach. Cuna Mas 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.
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 Cuna Mas 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cuna Mas 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.
Threats Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up are -
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 Cuna Mas.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cuna Mas 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.
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 Cuna Mas business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cuna Mas can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cuna Mas 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up .
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. Cuna Mas 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up, Cuna Mas 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cuna Mas with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Cuna Mas can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cuna Mas has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cuna Mas needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cuna Mas is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cuna Mas 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.
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. Cuna Mas needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up 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 Cuna Mas needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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