Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry
When Paulo Renato de Souza accepts an appointment to become Brazil's minister of education, he faces extreme challenges. Public education in Latin America's most populous nation is widely viewed as a failure. Brazil's vast population of poor children often attends schools that are both physically inadequate and have inadequate textbooks. His own department has seen a parade of ineffective leaders and has only indirect authority of state governments responsible for primary education. HKS Case Number 1571.0
Swot Analysis of "Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry" written by Merilee Grindle, Pamela Varley includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Brazil's Education facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Financial management, Generational issues, Government, Leadership, Project management, Strategic planning and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brazil's Education, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brazil's Education
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 Brazil's Education
Strengths Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brazil's Education in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Brazil's Education 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 Merilee Grindle, Pamela Varley 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Brazil's Education in the sector have low bargaining power. Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Brazil's Education to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Brazil's Education has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brazil's Education to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Brazil's Education has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Brazil's Education 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Brazil's Education is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Brazil's Education has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Brazil's Education is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Brazil's Education in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Brazil's Education digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Brazil's Education 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Brazil's Education in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Brazil's Education is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Brazil's Education is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Brazil's Education needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Brazil's Education to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Brazil's Education products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Brazil's Education needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Brazil's Education 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Brazil's Education 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Brazil's Education is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Brazil's Education has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Brazil's Education 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Brazil's Education 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Brazil's Education 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry HBR case study mentions - Brazil's Education 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 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 Brazil's Education supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Brazil's Education vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry | 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Brazil's Education 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, Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Brazil's Education 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.
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 Brazil's Education 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Brazil's Education 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.
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. Brazil's Education 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. Brazil's Education 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.
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. Brazil's Education can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brazil's Education 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Brazil's Education to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Brazil's Education 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Brazil's Education is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Brazil's Education can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Brazil's Education in the consumer business. Now Brazil's Education can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Brazil's Education can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Brazil's Education operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Threats Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Brazil's Education 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.
Environmental challenges
– Brazil's Education 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. Brazil's Education can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Brazil's Education in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Brazil's Education needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Brazil's Education 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.
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 Brazil's Education business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Brazil's Education
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Brazil's Education.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Brazil's Education with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Brazil's Education 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry .
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 Brazil's Education.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Brazil's Education has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Brazil's Education 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Brazil's Education is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry 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 Brazil's Education needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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