Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes
Supplement to case SMU413. This case is a two-part series on the value of faculty teaching forums and peer coaching programmes in resolving conflicting pedagogical philosophies. Case A is set in September 2009, shortly after James Nelson, assistant professor at Singapore Management University sought guidance from practice associate professor Harry Denon on the issue of declining student ratings of his teaching performance. Den then observes Nelson's lectures, and has in-depth discussions with him on his teaching style. The discussions prove very helpful to Nelson, who is now able to decide how he should approach his class and to what extent he needs to alter his teaching approach. The case looks at the value of feedback received by faculty through various lenses: students, peer and self-reflection. It is highly suitable for faculty development and executive education courses that cover different pedagogical philosophies and the effectiveness of student appraisal processes. In Case B, Nelson reflects on his peer coaching experience and how his thought process has evolved through the course of the coaching programme. He also describes some of the changes he made in his instructional strategy and course assessment methods, and reveals how he has refined his teaching philosophy.
Authors :: Swee Liang Tan, Michael Netzley, Sarita Mathur
Swot Analysis of "Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes" written by Swee Liang Tan, Michael Netzley, Sarita Mathur includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Coaching Peer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Education and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Coaching Peer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Coaching Peer 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Coaching Peer
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Coaching Peer
Strengths Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Coaching Peer in Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Coaching Peer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Coaching Peer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Coaching Peer 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Coaching Peer 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Coaching Peer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Coaching Peer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Coaching Peer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Coaching Peer 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 Coaching Peer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Coaching Peer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Coaching Peer 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 Coaching Peer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Coaching Peer in the sector have low bargaining power. Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Coaching Peer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Coaching Peer 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Coaching Peer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Coaching Peer has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Weaknesses Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes, is just above the industry average. Coaching Peer 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Coaching Peer 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Coaching Peer 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Coaching Peer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Coaching Peer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Coaching Peer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes, it seems that the employees of Coaching Peer 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Coaching Peer 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Coaching Peer has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Coaching Peer 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 - Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Coaching Peer 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Coaching Peer 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. Coaching Peer 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.
Opportunities Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes | 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Coaching Peer 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Coaching Peer 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Coaching Peer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Coaching Peer 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, Coaching Peer 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Coaching Peer 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Coaching Peer can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Coaching Peer to increase its market reach. Coaching Peer 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 Coaching Peer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Coaching Peer 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. Coaching Peer 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Coaching Peer 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 Organizational Development segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Coaching Peer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Coaching Peer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes case study. Coaching Peer 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, Coaching Peer 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, Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Coaching Peer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes are -
Increasing wage structure of Coaching Peer
– 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 Coaching Peer.
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 Coaching Peer.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Coaching Peer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Coaching Peer 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes, Coaching Peer may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Coaching Peer 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, Coaching Peer 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes .
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 Coaching Peer in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Coaching Peer 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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 Coaching Peer business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Coaching Peer 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Coaching Peer with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Guns and Roses (B): Educating Educators through Peer Coaching Programmes 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 Coaching Peer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
