Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well
The case focuses on how Pratham, a non-governmental organization, provided quality education to underprivileged children in India by collaborating with the government. It focuses on the problem Madhav Chavan, the founder, is trying to solve, the contributing factors that have caused this problem not to be solved till now, Madhav's theory of change, questions about whether these activities (inputs) will affect the outputs and have an impact, what will it take and how will we know if Pratham is successful, and recommendations about what Madhav should do next.
Tags :: Human resource management, International business, Organizational structure, Social enterprise, Strategy execution, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well" written by Srikant M. Datar, Stacey Childress, Rachna Tahilyani, Anjali Raina includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pratham Madhav facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, International business, Organizational structure, Social enterprise, Strategy execution and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pratham Madhav, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pratham Madhav
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 Pratham Madhav
Strengths Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pratham Madhav in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pratham Madhav digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pratham Madhav is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Analytics focus
– Pratham Madhav 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 Srikant M. Datar, Stacey Childress, Rachna Tahilyani, Anjali Raina 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.
Training and development
– Pratham Madhav has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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
– Pratham Madhav has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pratham Madhav 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.
Learning organization
- Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham Madhav is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham Madhav in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Pratham Madhav is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pratham Madhav in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Pratham Madhav has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pratham Madhav to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well are -
Need for greater diversity
– Pratham Madhav 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pratham Madhav is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham Madhav 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Pratham Madhav 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pratham Madhav is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Pratham Madhav needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pratham Madhav to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Srikant M. Datar, Stacey Childress, Rachna Tahilyani, Anjali Raina suggests that, Pratham Madhav 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pratham Madhav 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pratham Madhav 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pratham Madhav is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pratham Madhav products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pratham Madhav needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well HBR case study mentions - Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well | 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham Madhav in the consumer business. Now Pratham Madhav can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pratham Madhav 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pratham Madhav 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Pratham Madhav 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pratham Madhav can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
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. Pratham Madhav can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pratham Madhav 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pratham Madhav can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pratham Madhav operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pratham Madhav 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.
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. Pratham Madhav 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. Pratham Madhav 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pratham Madhav 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pratham Madhav to increase its market reach. Pratham Madhav 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.
Threats Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well are -
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. Pratham Madhav 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.
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 Pratham Madhav.
Environmental challenges
– Pratham Madhav 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. Pratham Madhav can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pratham Madhav has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pratham Madhav 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pratham Madhav 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pratham Madhav with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pratham Madhav 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pratham Madhav 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well, Pratham Madhav 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Pratham Madhav 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pratham Madhav is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pratham Madhav 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham - Every Child in School and Learning Well 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 Pratham Madhav needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
