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, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, 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 -
Diverse revenue streams
– 2123.0 Bedtime is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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.
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.
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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– 2123.0 Bedtime is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
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.
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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Organizational Resilience of 2123.0 Bedtime
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that 2123.0 Bedtime does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of 2123.0 Bedtime in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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 -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of 2123.0 Bedtime is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. 2123.0 Bedtime needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help 2123.0 Bedtime to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, in the dynamic environment 2123.0 Bedtime has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. 2123.0 Bedtime has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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.
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 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China 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 2123.0 Bedtime 's lucrative customers.
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 2123.0 Bedtime supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left 2123.0 Bedtime vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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.
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.
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.
Loyalty marketing
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help 2123.0 Bedtime to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 2123.0 Bedtime can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– 2123.0 Bedtime can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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 Growing Home: Creating Institutional Change in China - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help 2123.0 Bedtime to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 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.
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. 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that 2123.0 Bedtime is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on 2123.0 Bedtime 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.
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.
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.