The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream"
In 2010, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison operator in the U.S., was considering expansion options. The company's largest customers, federal and state governments, were under economic pressure to reduce the incarceration rate and lower operating costs, potentially jeopardizing CCA's profits. Should CCA follow its competitor's footsteps and expand overseas? Or could it count on an ever-increasing population of U.S. prisoners to fuel continued growth?
Swot Analysis of "The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream"" written by Rafael Di Tella, Laura Winig includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cca Prisoners facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Technology and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream"
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cca Prisoners, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cca Prisoners 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cca Prisoners
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 Cca Prisoners
Strengths The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cca Prisoners in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Cca Prisoners has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cca Prisoners 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cca Prisoners 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cca Prisoners digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cca Prisoners has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cca Prisoners in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cca Prisoners is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Cca Prisoners is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Cca Prisoners
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cca Prisoners does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Cca Prisoners is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cca Prisoners to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cca Prisoners to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cca Prisoners has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cca Prisoners 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cca Prisoners is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cca Prisoners 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. Cca Prisoners 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream", it seems that the employees of Cca Prisoners 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cca Prisoners 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cca Prisoners is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream", is just above the industry average. Cca Prisoners needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cca Prisoners 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cca Prisoners 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cca Prisoners is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Cca Prisoners needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cca Prisoners to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cca Prisoners products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cca Prisoners needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rafael Di Tella, Laura Winig suggests that, Cca Prisoners 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 Cca Prisoners 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" | 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cca Prisoners has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cca Prisoners to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" case study. Cca Prisoners can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cca Prisoners is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cca Prisoners 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 Global Business segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Cca Prisoners can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cca Prisoners 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cca Prisoners can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cca Prisoners operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cca Prisoners in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cca Prisoners 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, The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream", to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cca Prisoners 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
– Cca Prisoners 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.
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. Cca Prisoners can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cca Prisoners 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 Cca Prisoners in the consumer business. Now Cca Prisoners can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cca Prisoners with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cca Prisoners 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Cca Prisoners 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cca Prisoners 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.
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 Cca Prisoners business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cca Prisoners 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.
Environmental challenges
– Cca Prisoners 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. Cca Prisoners can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream", Cca Prisoners 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 .
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cca Prisoners 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" .
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 Cca Prisoners.
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. Cca Prisoners needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cca Prisoners is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 The Market for Prisoners: Business, Crime and Punishment in the "American Dream" 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 Cca Prisoners needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
