Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model
This case study discusses the progressive convergence between the "traditional" business-oriented and the nonprofit/social sectors and, contextually, the emergence of a new business model, i.e., the social enterprise. Social enterprises are organizations that combine the commercial and social logics in unprecedented ways.
Swot Analysis of "Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model" written by Tommaso Ramus, Antonino Vaccaro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Social Nonprofit facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy execution and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Social Nonprofit, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Social Nonprofit 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Social Nonprofit
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 Social Nonprofit
Strengths Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Social Nonprofit in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Social Nonprofit 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Social Nonprofit has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Social Nonprofit digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Social Nonprofit 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Social Nonprofit is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Social Nonprofit is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Social Nonprofit 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 Tommaso Ramus, Antonino Vaccaro 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Social Nonprofit in the sector have low bargaining power. Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Social Nonprofit to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Social Nonprofit 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Social Nonprofit in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Social Nonprofit is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Social Nonprofit 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Social Nonprofit
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Social Nonprofit does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Social Nonprofit 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 - Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Social Nonprofit 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. Social Nonprofit 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model HBR case study mentions - Social Nonprofit 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Social Nonprofit 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model, in the dynamic environment Social Nonprofit has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Social Nonprofit has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Social Nonprofit is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Social Nonprofit 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Social Nonprofit, firm in the HBR case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Social Nonprofit supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Social Nonprofit vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Social Nonprofit 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.
Opportunities Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model | 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Social Nonprofit 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. Social Nonprofit can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Social Nonprofit 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, Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Social Nonprofit can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Social Nonprofit can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Social Nonprofit has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Social Nonprofit to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model case study. Social Nonprofit can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Social Nonprofit 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Social Nonprofit to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Social Nonprofit is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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
– Social Nonprofit 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.
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. Social Nonprofit 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. Social Nonprofit 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 Social Nonprofit 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
– Social Nonprofit can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Social Nonprofit 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.
Threats Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Social Nonprofit 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Social Nonprofit 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.
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. Social Nonprofit 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.
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 Social Nonprofit business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Social Nonprofit.
Environmental challenges
– Social Nonprofit 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. Social Nonprofit can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Social Nonprofit 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. Social Nonprofit 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 Social Nonprofit in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Social Nonprofit has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Social Nonprofit 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model, Social Nonprofit 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Social Nonprofit 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Blurring the Boundaries Between For Profit and Nonprofit Organizations: The Social Enterprises' Model 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 Social Nonprofit needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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