Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel)
This sequel accompanies the case Tackling Poor Performance (1571.0). When Paulo Renato de Souza accepts an appointment to become Brazil's minister of education, he faces extreme challenges. Public education in Latin America's most populous nation is widely viewed as a failure. Brazil's vast population of poor children often attends schools that are both physically inadequate and have inadequate textbooks. His own department has seen a parade of ineffective leaders and has only indirect authority of state governments responsible for primary education. HKS Case Number 1571.1
Swot Analysis of "Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel)" written by Pamela Varley, Merilee Grindle includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Brazil's Education facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Financial management, Generational issues, Government, Leadership, Project management, Strategic planning and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brazil's Education, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brazil's Education
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 Brazil's Education
Strengths Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brazil's Education in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Brazil's Education to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Brazil's Education to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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.
Training and development
– Brazil's Education has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Brazil's Education 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.
High brand equity
– Brazil's Education has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brazil's Education to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Brazil's Education in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Brazil's Education in the sector have low bargaining power. Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Brazil's Education to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Brazil's Education has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Brazil's Education 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 lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Brazil's Education is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Brazil's Education in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Brazil's Education 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 Brazil's Education is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Brazil's Education is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Brazil's Education is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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.
Weaknesses Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) HBR case study mentions - Brazil's Education 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Brazil's Education 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Brazil's Education has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel), in the dynamic environment Brazil's Education has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Brazil's Education has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Brazil's Education 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. Brazil's Education 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pamela Varley, Merilee Grindle suggests that, Brazil's Education 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Brazil's Education 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Brazil's Education 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.
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 Brazil's Education supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Brazil's Education vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Brazil's Education 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel), 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.
Opportunities Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) | 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Brazil's Education is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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.
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 Brazil's Education in the consumer business. Now Brazil's Education can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Brazil's Education 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brazil's Education 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
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 Brazil's Education 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Brazil's Education 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. Brazil's Education 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Brazil's Education 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Brazil's Education 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
– Brazil's Education 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Brazil's Education can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Brazil's Education 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, Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel), 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. Brazil's Education 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 Brazil's Education 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.
Threats Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) are -
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 Brazil's Education in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Brazil's Education
– 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 Brazil's Education.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel), Brazil's Education may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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 Brazil's Education.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Brazil's Education 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
– Brazil's Education 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.
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. Brazil's Education can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Brazil's Education 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. Brazil's Education can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Brazil's Education 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Brazil's Education has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Brazil's Education 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, Brazil's Education 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Brazil's Education is facing in Finance & Accounting 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. Brazil's Education needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Tackling Poor Performance, Extreme Inequality, Public Complaisance: Brazil's Education Minister Forges a New Role for the Ministry (Sequel) 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 Brazil's Education needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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