Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan
Explores the challenges of female entrepreneurship in Afghanistan through the case of Kemeli Sediqi, who built a business under the Taliban, and founded a consultancy in 2004. The case positions Sediqi's experiences against the background of Afghanistan's turbulent history, with a focus on the contested role of women in Afghani society.
Authors :: Geoffrey G. Jones, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Swot Analysis of "Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan" written by Geoffrey G. Jones, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Afghanistan Female facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Gender, Social responsibility and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Afghanistan Female, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Afghanistan Female 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Afghanistan Female
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 Afghanistan Female
Strengths Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Afghanistan Female in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Afghanistan Female 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Afghanistan Female
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Afghanistan Female does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Afghanistan Female has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Afghanistan Female 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Afghanistan Female to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Afghanistan Female to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Afghanistan Female 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 Afghanistan Female is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Afghanistan Female is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Afghanistan Female in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Afghanistan Female 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Afghanistan Female in the sector have low bargaining power. Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Afghanistan Female to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Afghanistan Female 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Afghanistan Female is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Geoffrey G. Jones, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon suggests that, Afghanistan Female 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan HBR case study mentions - Afghanistan Female 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Afghanistan Female 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 - Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Afghanistan Female, firm in the HBR case study Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan, is just above the industry average. Afghanistan Female 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Afghanistan Female 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Afghanistan Female 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Afghanistan Female supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Afghanistan Female vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan, in the dynamic environment Afghanistan Female has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Afghanistan Female has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Afghanistan Female 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Afghanistan Female 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. Afghanistan Female 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.
Opportunities Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan | 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Afghanistan Female can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Afghanistan Female operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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. Afghanistan Female 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. Afghanistan Female 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 Afghanistan Female 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Afghanistan Female 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 Afghanistan Female 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. Afghanistan Female can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Afghanistan Female 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Afghanistan Female is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Afghanistan Female 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Afghanistan Female can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Afghanistan Female 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.
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 Afghanistan Female in the consumer business. Now Afghanistan Female can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Afghanistan Female has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Afghanistan Female to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan case study. Afghanistan Female can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Afghanistan Female 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.
Threats Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan are -
Environmental challenges
– Afghanistan Female 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. Afghanistan Female can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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. Afghanistan Female 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.
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. Afghanistan Female 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Afghanistan Female 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Afghanistan Female 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Afghanistan Female with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Afghanistan Female business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan, Afghanistan Female 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 .
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 Afghanistan Female.
Regulatory challenges
– Afghanistan Female 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.
Increasing wage structure of Afghanistan Female
– 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 Afghanistan Female.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan 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 Afghanistan Female needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.