Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing
Christopher Lenard and his longtime friend Kimberly Slater are exploring the idea of developing a student-housing complex near the University of Wisconsin, Madison, by replicating Slater's highly successful, similar development near the University of Florida. Madison seemed to present attractive market and demographic conditions for investment in student housing in the summer of 2012. But before committing a large share of his personal wealth to the project, Lenard needs to conduct a more careful analysis of its potential risks and returns. By putting themselves into the shoes of a budding real estate entrepreneur, students will evaluate both the merits and pitfalls of various approaches to the financial analysis of real estate development projects.
Swot Analysis of "Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing" written by Craig Furfine includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lenard Housing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lenard Housing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lenard Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lenard Housing
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 Lenard Housing
Strengths Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lenard Housing in Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lenard Housing in the sector have low bargaining power. Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lenard Housing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lenard Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lenard Housing in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lenard Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lenard Housing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lenard Housing 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lenard Housing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lenard Housing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lenard Housing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lenard Housing 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lenard Housing 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.
Analytics focus
– Lenard Housing 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 Craig Furfine 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.
Organizational Resilience of Lenard Housing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lenard Housing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lenard Housing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lenard Housing is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Lenard Housing products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lenard Housing needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lenard Housing has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Lenard Housing even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing HBR case study mentions - Lenard Housing 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Lenard Housing 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing, it seems that the employees of Lenard Housing don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– Lenard Housing 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Lenard Housing 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Lenard Housing 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.
Opportunities Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing | 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lenard Housing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lenard Housing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing case study. Lenard Housing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lenard Housing 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lenard Housing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Lenard Housing 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, Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing, 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 Lenard Housing 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.
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 Lenard Housing in the consumer business. Now Lenard Housing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lenard Housing to increase its market reach. Lenard Housing 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lenard Housing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lenard Housing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lenard Housing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Lenard Housing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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.
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 Lenard Housing 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.
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. Lenard Housing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lenard Housing 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 Lenard Housing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing are -
Increasing wage structure of Lenard Housing
– 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 Lenard Housing.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Lenard Housing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Lenard Housing 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.
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 Lenard Housing.
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. Lenard Housing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Lenard Housing 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lenard Housing is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Lenard Housing in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Lenard Housing 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lenard Housing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lenard Housing 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lenard Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing .
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 Lenard Housing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Back to School: Real Estate Development of Off-Campus Student Housing 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 Lenard Housing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
