Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia
In summer and fall of 2014, thousands of individuals in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea contracted the Ebola virus. This outbreak of the deadly disease, which until then had been highly uncommon in West Africa, prompted a major (albeit delayed) public health response on the part of the international community, including an unprecedented commitment made by the United States, which sent almost 3,000 active military soldiers to Liberia. "Mission in Flux" focuses on the US military's role in the Ebola response, emphasizing the Michigan National Guard's eventual involvement. In particular, it provides readers with a first-hand account of the challenges the Michigan Guard faced as it prepared for and then deployed to Liberia, just as the crisis had begun to abate and federal officials in Washington began considering how to redefine the mission and footprint of Ebola-relief in West Africa. Case number 2107.0
Swot Analysis of "Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia" written by Arnold M. Howitt, Kirsten Lundberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Liberia Ebola facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Health and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Liberia Ebola, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Liberia Ebola
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Liberia Ebola
Strengths Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Liberia Ebola in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Liberia Ebola has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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.
Organizational Resilience of Liberia Ebola
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Liberia Ebola does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Liberia Ebola has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Liberia Ebola to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Liberia Ebola 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Liberia Ebola in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Liberia Ebola is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Liberia Ebola to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Liberia Ebola to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Liberia Ebola 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 Liberia Ebola is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Liberia Ebola has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Liberia Ebola 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Liberia Ebola 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 Liberia Ebola in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Liberia Ebola products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Liberia Ebola 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, Liberia Ebola is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Liberia Ebola, firm in the HBR case study Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Liberia Ebola 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 Liberia Ebola is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Liberia Ebola needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia, is just above the industry average. Liberia Ebola 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Liberia Ebola has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia HBR case study mentions - Liberia Ebola 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arnold M. Howitt, Kirsten Lundberg suggests that, Liberia Ebola is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia | 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Liberia Ebola has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Liberia Ebola to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia case study. Liberia Ebola can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Liberia Ebola can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Liberia Ebola can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Liberia Ebola is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Liberia Ebola 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
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 Liberia Ebola in the consumer business. Now Liberia Ebola can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Liberia Ebola can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Liberia Ebola 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Liberia Ebola 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, Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Liberia Ebola to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Liberia Ebola 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Liberia Ebola can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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, Liberia Ebola can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Liberia Ebola operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia are -
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. Liberia Ebola needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Liberia Ebola.
Increasing wage structure of Liberia Ebola
– 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 Liberia Ebola.
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.
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 Liberia Ebola business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Liberia Ebola 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Liberia Ebola 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia .
Environmental challenges
– Liberia Ebola 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. Liberia Ebola can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Liberia Ebola with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Liberia Ebola in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Liberia Ebola has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Liberia Ebola needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Liberia Ebola 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia 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 Liberia Ebola needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.