Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility
Since the founding of Ontario-based Social Focus Consulting (SFC) in 2011, its founder had led a team of over 100 members to work on more than 30 projects for over 30 non-profit organization (NPO) clients from London to Ottawa. SFC's competitive market included NPO consulting firms that were more established, larger, or offered pro bono services. SFC set itself apart by exclusively hiring undergraduate and graduate students. The organization specialized in youth-oriented marketing strategies that helped NPOs raise more funds and awareness in a highly fragmented multi-billion-dollar Canadian market. Although SFC had achieved some success, the founder wondered if SFC's recent declining revenues and failure in new project acquisition meant that its business model was not feasible over a long-term horizon. In September 2017, he had to decide whether to continue running SFC with long-term goals for success or avoid the risk of ruining his professional reputation and wasting time and money by ending his work with SFC. Anthony Goerzen is affiliated with Queen's University.
Swot Analysis of "Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility" written by John Paul de Silva, Anthony Goerzen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sfc Sfc's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing,
increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sfc Sfc's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sfc Sfc's
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 Sfc Sfc's
Strengths Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sfc Sfc's in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Sfc Sfc's 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 John Paul de Silva, Anthony Goerzen 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Sfc Sfc's 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 Sfc Sfc's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Sfc Sfc's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sfc Sfc's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sfc Sfc's 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sfc Sfc's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Sfc Sfc's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Sfc Sfc's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sfc Sfc's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sfc Sfc's 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sfc Sfc's in the sector have low bargaining power. Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sfc Sfc's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sfc Sfc's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sfc Sfc's 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility - 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
– Sfc Sfc's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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.
Weaknesses Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility HBR case study mentions - Sfc Sfc's 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.
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 Sfc Sfc's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sfc Sfc's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Sfc Sfc's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sfc Sfc's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Sfc Sfc's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sfc Sfc's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility, is just above the industry average. Sfc Sfc's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sfc Sfc's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sfc Sfc's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sfc Sfc's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Sfc Sfc's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sfc Sfc's 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. Sfc Sfc's 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Sfc Sfc's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility | 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility are -
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. Sfc Sfc's 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. Sfc Sfc's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Sfc Sfc's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sfc Sfc's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Sfc Sfc's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sfc Sfc's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sfc Sfc's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sfc Sfc's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sfc Sfc's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility case study. Sfc Sfc's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sfc Sfc's can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sfc Sfc's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sfc Sfc's 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, Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sfc Sfc's in the consumer business. Now Sfc Sfc's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility are -
Increasing wage structure of Sfc Sfc's
– 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 Sfc Sfc's.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sfc Sfc's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sfc Sfc's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility, Sfc Sfc's 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. Sfc Sfc's 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
– Sfc Sfc's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sfc Sfc's 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.
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 Sfc Sfc's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sfc Sfc's 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 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sfc Sfc's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Sfc Sfc's 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sfc Sfc's 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility .
Environmental challenges
– Sfc Sfc's 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. Sfc Sfc's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Social Focus Consulting: Evaluating Its Long-Term Feasibility 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 Sfc Sfc's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
