The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform
In late 2014, the deputy minister of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence joined the public service, six months after Ukraine's revolution and change of government. He joined the ministry as part of the new government's attempt to reform a bureaucracy crippled by corruption, inefficiencies, and dysfunction. In six months, he had already made notable changes. However, by March 2015, the changes were not resulting in better outcomes where they were urgently needed-in the eastern regions, supporting a tactically and logistically crippled military that was resisting Russian attempts at incursion. What more could the deputy minister do to initiate and lead change?
Swot Analysis of "The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform" written by Gerard Seijts, Yaryna Boychuk, Liudmyla Kryzhanovska, Sophia Opatska includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ukraine's Ministry facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ukraine's Ministry, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ukraine's Ministry
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 Ukraine's Ministry
Strengths The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ukraine's Ministry in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ukraine's Ministry is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ukraine's Ministry to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ukraine's Ministry to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Ukraine's Ministry 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 Gerard Seijts, Yaryna Boychuk, Liudmyla Kryzhanovska, Sophia Opatska 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.
Learning organization
- Ukraine's Ministry 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 Ukraine's Ministry is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ukraine's Ministry 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)
– Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform - 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
– Ukraine's Ministry has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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.
Training and development
– Ukraine's Ministry has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 Ukraine's Ministry
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ukraine's Ministry does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Ukraine's Ministry is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 Ukraine's Ministry has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Ukraine's Ministry has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform, in the dynamic environment Ukraine's Ministry has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ukraine's Ministry has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ukraine's Ministry products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ukraine's Ministry needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ukraine's Ministry 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 - The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 Ukraine's Ministry 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Gerard Seijts, Yaryna Boychuk, Liudmyla Kryzhanovska, Sophia Opatska suggests that, Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform | 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ukraine's Ministry to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ukraine's Ministry to increase its market reach. Ukraine's Ministry 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 Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ukraine's Ministry 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. Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ukraine's Ministry can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ukraine's Ministry 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, The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ukraine's Ministry 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, Ukraine's Ministry is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ukraine's Ministry can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ukraine's Ministry 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.
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 Ukraine's Ministry in the consumer business. Now Ukraine's Ministry can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform are -
Regulatory challenges
– Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ukraine's Ministry 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform .
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 Ukraine's Ministry in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Ukraine's Ministry can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ukraine's Ministry 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 Ukraine's Ministry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ukraine's Ministry is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ukraine's Ministry has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ukraine's Ministry needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ukraine's Ministry 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. Ukraine's Ministry can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform, Ukraine's Ministry 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ukraine's Ministry with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Ukraine's Ministry business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ukraine's Ministry 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine: The Role of Character in Reform 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 Ukraine's Ministry needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
