Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China
In 2008, Du and Lu, two experienced professional volunteers passionate about improving the state of mental health and well being among Chinese youth, founded Growing Home in Beijing, China. The nonprofit organization has since evolved from teaching children that have migrated to big cities from rural areas, to focusing on developing bedtime stories particularly for children in rural residential schools. As the demand for Growing Home's program expands, they face a decision on the organization's next step forward. Despite struggling with conflicts such as a lack of expertise and experience in commercializing the program, and establishing relationships with the government and other NGOs, the team is determined to reach the later stages of an ambitious 7-stage timeline designed to scale the NGO's social impact, and ultimately create significant institutional changes within China's education system. Case number 2123.0
Swot Analysis of "Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China" written by Christopher Marquis, Yen Hsiang Wu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that 2123.0 Bedtime facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 2123.0 Bedtime, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of 2123.0 Bedtime
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 2123.0 Bedtime
Strengths Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of 2123.0 Bedtime in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– 2123.0 Bedtime is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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 2123.0 Bedtime in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- 2123.0 Bedtime 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 2123.0 Bedtime is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Christopher Marquis, Yen Hsiang Wu 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled 2123.0 Bedtime to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped 2123.0 Bedtime to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– 2123.0 Bedtime has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled 2123.0 Bedtime to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China - 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
– 2123.0 Bedtime has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Training and development
– 2123.0 Bedtime has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of 2123.0 Bedtime in the sector have low bargaining power. Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps 2123.0 Bedtime 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 2123.0 Bedtime digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Weaknesses Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China HBR case study mentions - 2123.0 Bedtime 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, 2123.0 Bedtime 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 2123.0 Bedtime has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher Marquis, Yen Hsiang Wu suggests that, 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 2123.0 Bedtime is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, it seems that the employees of 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of 2123.0 Bedtime, firm in the HBR case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, 2123.0 Bedtime 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. 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China | 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China are -
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 2123.0 Bedtime in the consumer business. Now 2123.0 Bedtime can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, 2123.0 Bedtime is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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.
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. 2123.0 Bedtime can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects 2123.0 Bedtime can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– 2123.0 Bedtime can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 2123.0 Bedtime to increase its market reach. 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. 2123.0 Bedtime 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. 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, 2123.0 Bedtime 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, Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, 2123.0 Bedtime can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that 2123.0 Bedtime operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for 2123.0 Bedtime 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 2123.0 Bedtime to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Threats Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 2123.0 Bedtime has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, 2123.0 Bedtime 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 .
Increasing wage structure of 2123.0 Bedtime
– 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 2123.0 Bedtime.
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. 2123.0 Bedtime can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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, 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents 2123.0 Bedtime with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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. 2123.0 Bedtime can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 2123.0 Bedtime in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
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 2123.0 Bedtime.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for 2123.0 Bedtime in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 2123.0 Bedtime needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
