For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise
The London, Ontario, social enterprise For the Love of Laundry was founded in 2014 with the intention of selling homemade, eco-friendly soaps and using the profits to fund free laundry events in the community. In 2017, the founder's goal was to increase the scale of the business and its social impact. She needed to decide how to structure the organization to increase its scale while maintaining control of its strategic direction. The founder compared the pros and cons of the four organizational structures available for social enterprises in Canada-for-profit organization, non-profit organization, registered charity, and co-operative-to decide which option would best suit the organization. She wanted to ensure that the organization's social aspect remained central while she sought funds to increase its scale. She needed to balance the triple bottom line, but with a primary focus on the social component. She also needed to consider the importance of corporate identity for social enterprises in the scaling process. Kent Walker is affiliated with University of Windsor.
Authors :: Kent Walker, Ian Stecher, Francine Schlosser, Megain O'Neil-Renaud
Swot Analysis of "For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise" written by Kent Walker, Ian Stecher, Francine Schlosser, Megain O'Neil-Renaud includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Laundry Social facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Laundry Social, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Laundry Social 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Laundry Social
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 Laundry Social
Strengths For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Laundry Social in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Laundry Social 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Laundry Social has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Laundry Social 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.
Organizational Resilience of Laundry Social
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Laundry Social does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Laundry Social 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 Kent Walker, Ian Stecher, Francine Schlosser, Megain O'Neil-Renaud 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Laundry Social is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Laundry Social is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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
– Laundry Social is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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
– Laundry Social is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Laundry Social in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Laundry Social has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Laundry Social 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.
Weaknesses For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Laundry Social 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
– Laundry Social 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Laundry Social has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Laundry Social is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Laundry Social needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Laundry Social to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Laundry Social 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. Laundry Social 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise, it seems that the employees of Laundry Social 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Laundry Social 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Laundry Social 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Laundry Social 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 - For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise, in the dynamic environment Laundry Social has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Laundry Social 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 Laundry Social products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Laundry Social needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise | 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Laundry Social 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.
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. Laundry Social 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, Laundry Social 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.
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 Laundry Social 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Laundry Social can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Laundry Social in the consumer business. Now Laundry Social 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 Laundry Social has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Laundry Social to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise case study. Laundry Social can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Laundry Social 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, For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Laundry Social 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Laundry Social can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Laundry Social can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Laundry Social operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Laundry Social 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 Laundry Social to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Laundry Social 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.
Threats For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 Laundry Social.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise, Laundry Social 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 .
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. Laundry Social will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Laundry Social business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Laundry Social 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, Laundry Social 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise .
Regulatory challenges
– Laundry Social 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Laundry Social with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Laundry Social
– 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 Laundry Social.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Laundry Social 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
– Laundry Social has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Laundry Social 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.
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
– Laundry Social 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. Laundry Social can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 For the Love of Laundry: Comparing Organizational Forms to Scale a Social Enterprise 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 Laundry Social needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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