A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China
ABC (A Better Community) provided pro-bono and paid management consulting services to nongovernment organizations in mainland China. Founded in 2008, ABC had quickly expanded from a voluntary group in Beijing with 7 volunteers in to a well-organized NGO with several hundred volunteers operating in 4 cities, serving more than one hundred NGOs. However, the rapid development also brought many challenges to both the running of the organization and how to best achieve its social mission. Case number 2119.0
Swot Analysis of "A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China" written by Christopher Marquis, Zhishuang Guan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Abc Volunteers facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Abc Volunteers, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Abc Volunteers 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Abc Volunteers
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 Abc Volunteers
Strengths A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Abc Volunteers in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Abc Volunteers is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Abc Volunteers 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Abc Volunteers 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Abc Volunteers in the sector have low bargaining power. A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Abc Volunteers 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 Abc Volunteers digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Abc Volunteers 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Abc Volunteers in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Abc Volunteers 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 Abc Volunteers is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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.
Training and development
– Abc Volunteers has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Abc Volunteers has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Abc Volunteers 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Abc Volunteers to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Abc Volunteers to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Abc Volunteers has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Abc Volunteers to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Abc Volunteers 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 Abc Volunteers 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Abc Volunteers 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Abc Volunteers products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Abc Volunteers needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China, is just above the industry average. Abc Volunteers 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Abc Volunteers, firm in the HBR case study A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Abc Volunteers 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Abc Volunteers is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Abc Volunteers needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Abc Volunteers to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 Abc Volunteers has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Abc Volunteers is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China HBR case study mentions - Abc Volunteers 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Abc Volunteers to increase its market reach. Abc Volunteers 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Abc Volunteers 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Abc Volunteers can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Abc Volunteers can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Abc Volunteers operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
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 Abc Volunteers 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Abc Volunteers 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 Abc Volunteers to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Abc Volunteers 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Abc Volunteers to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Abc Volunteers in the consumer business. Now Abc Volunteers can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Abc Volunteers 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Abc Volunteers 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.
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. Abc Volunteers can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Abc Volunteers is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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.
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. Abc Volunteers can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China are -
Regulatory challenges
– Abc Volunteers 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.
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 Abc Volunteers.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Abc Volunteers 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.
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. Abc Volunteers 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Abc Volunteers 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Abc Volunteers 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.
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. Abc Volunteers needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Abc Volunteers business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China, Abc Volunteers 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Abc Volunteers 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure in China .
Environmental challenges
– Abc Volunteers 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. Abc Volunteers can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Abc Volunteers has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Abc Volunteers 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 A Better Community (ABC): Developing the NGO Infrastructure 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 Abc Volunteers needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.