Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?
The case describes a real instance where a college student, Sarah James, attends a Mexican university (INI) for the summer to develop her language and cross-cultural capabilities. At the end of a successful semester, she e-mails the director of international recruitment for the Mexican University - with a copy to her major professor back in the United States - complaining about the treatment she received from her host family. She appears to have alienated all parties involved as she makes her exodus. The reader must decide how Professor McGill should respond. McGill had been attempting to build a relationship with the administration at INI in hopes of sending more students there for cross-cultural and language training. The reader must also evaluate Sarah's complaints to determine if they are a result of her own inflexibility or whether the host family was inappropriately screened or prepared. Will the remedy be found in having better policies governing host families or in having more culturally-attuned students?
Authors ::
Topics :: Global Business
Tags :: Human resource management, International business, Joint ventures, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?" written by includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ini Mcgill facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, International business, Joint ventures and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ini Mcgill, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ini Mcgill 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ini Mcgill
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ini Mcgill
Strengths Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ini Mcgill in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ini Mcgill 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 Global Business industry
– Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ini Mcgill to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ini Mcgill to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Ini Mcgill
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ini Mcgill does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ini Mcgill is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ini Mcgill is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ini Mcgill has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ini Mcgill 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ini Mcgill 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ini Mcgill in the sector have low bargaining power. Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ini Mcgill to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ini Mcgill 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.
High brand equity
– Ini Mcgill has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ini Mcgill to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Ini Mcgill is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ini Mcgill 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, suggests that, Ini Mcgill 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ini Mcgill 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ini Mcgill 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ini Mcgill has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Ini Mcgill 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ini Mcgill 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 Ini Mcgill is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Ini Mcgill needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ini Mcgill to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ini Mcgill is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?, in the dynamic environment Ini Mcgill has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ini Mcgill has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ini Mcgill products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ini Mcgill needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? | 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? are -
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 Ini Mcgill in the consumer business. Now Ini Mcgill can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ini Mcgill 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 Ini Mcgill to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Ini Mcgill can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ini Mcgill is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ini Mcgill 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ini Mcgill can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ini Mcgill operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ini Mcgill can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ini Mcgill can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Ini Mcgill can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ini Mcgill 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ini Mcgill to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Ini Mcgill 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ini Mcgill 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, Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ini Mcgill 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. Ini Mcgill 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.
Threats Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ini Mcgill has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ini Mcgill needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ini Mcgill 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ini Mcgill in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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 Ini Mcgill is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Ini Mcgill needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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 Ini Mcgill in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Ini Mcgill
– 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 Ini Mcgill.
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 Ini Mcgill.
Regulatory challenges
– Ini Mcgill 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?, Ini Mcgill may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ini Mcgill can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt? 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 Ini Mcgill needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
