The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A)
In the late 1990s, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, under heavy pressure to find ways to relieve developing countries of large volumes of accumulated public debt, devise a way they believe offers a way to link such debt relief with their long-term goal of decreasing world poverty. Aid allowing for reduction in debt would be linked to the development of a so-called Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP), a blueprint for how nations would use the financial resources freed by debt relief both to increase economic growth and to decrease the number of persons in poverty. This case focuses on the development of such a plan in the West African country of Mauritania, a predominantly desert nation twice the size of France with a population of just 2.6 million. Specifically, the case describes the challenges faced by the government team charged with development of the PRSP as it grapples with a mandate that the plan be developed through a process of thorough public participation. Only recently democratic, and with a long history of military rule and ethnic and racial conflict, Mauritania posed difficult challenges for those seeking to involve the public. Although a wave of non-government organizations had developed in the 1990s, not all were considered either representative or legitimate. HKS Case Number 1623.0
Swot Analysis of "The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A)" written by Kitty Guckenberger, Sanjeev Khagram includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Prsp Mauritania facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Policy, Strategic planning and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Prsp Mauritania, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Prsp Mauritania 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Prsp Mauritania
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Prsp Mauritania
Strengths The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Prsp Mauritania in The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Prsp Mauritania has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Prsp Mauritania 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Prsp Mauritania 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Prsp Mauritania has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Prsp Mauritania is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Prsp Mauritania digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Prsp Mauritania 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Prsp Mauritania is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Prsp Mauritania 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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.
Analytics focus
– Prsp Mauritania 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 Kitty Guckenberger, Sanjeev Khagram 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Prsp Mauritania is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Prsp Mauritania in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Prsp Mauritania to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Prsp Mauritania to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Prsp Mauritania, firm in the HBR case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kitty Guckenberger, Sanjeev Khagram suggests that, Prsp Mauritania 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), is just above the industry average. Prsp Mauritania 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 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 Prsp Mauritania supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Prsp Mauritania vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Prsp Mauritania has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), it seems that the employees of Prsp Mauritania 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), in the dynamic environment Prsp Mauritania has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Prsp Mauritania has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Prsp Mauritania 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Prsp Mauritania is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Prsp Mauritania needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Prsp Mauritania to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Prsp Mauritania 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) HBR case study mentions - Prsp Mauritania 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.
Opportunities The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) | 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Prsp Mauritania 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Prsp Mauritania can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Prsp Mauritania can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Prsp Mauritania 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Prsp Mauritania to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Prsp Mauritania can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Prsp Mauritania operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Prsp Mauritania 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. Prsp Mauritania 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Prsp Mauritania 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Prsp Mauritania 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Prsp Mauritania can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Prsp Mauritania is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Prsp Mauritania in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Prsp Mauritania in the consumer business. Now Prsp Mauritania can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Prsp Mauritania 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Threats The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Prsp Mauritania with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Prsp Mauritania 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
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. Prsp Mauritania needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting 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 Prsp Mauritania.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Prsp Mauritania in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Prsp Mauritania is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A), Prsp Mauritania may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Prsp Mauritania 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Prsp Mauritania 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.
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
– Prsp Mauritania has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Prsp Mauritania needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Prsp Mauritania can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Prsp Mauritania 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Challenge of Participation: Drafting Mauritania's PRSP (A) 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 Prsp Mauritania needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
