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Steve Mariotti and NFTE SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Steve Mariotti and NFTE


Less than three years ago, Steve Mariotti created NFTE, a nonprofit organization for teaching entrepreneurship to disadvantaged youths. The organization has gained national recognition, and offers a variety of programs on a budget of nearly half a million dollars. It is still run out of Mariotti's apartment. Mariotti is beginning to feel the stress of rapid growth and is concerned that further expansion will require significant organizational change. Students are presented with the challenge of advising Mariotti on this change process. The case is about the challenge of taking an organization beyond the founder-dependent, informal start-up stage of development.

Authors :: J. Gregory Dees, Alice Oberfield

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Education, Entrepreneurial management, Organizational structure, Social enterprise, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Steve Mariotti and NFTE" written by J. Gregory Dees, Alice Oberfield includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mariotti Nfte facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Steve Mariotti and NFTE case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Education, Entrepreneurial management, Organizational structure, Social enterprise and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Steve Mariotti and NFTE casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Steve Mariotti and NFTE


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Steve Mariotti and NFTE case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mariotti Nfte, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mariotti Nfte 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Steve Mariotti and NFTE case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mariotti Nfte
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mariotti Nfte




Strengths Steve Mariotti and NFTE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Mariotti Nfte in Steve Mariotti and NFTE Harvard Business Review case study are -

Organizational Resilience of Mariotti Nfte

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mariotti Nfte does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Strong track record of project management

– Mariotti Nfte is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Mariotti Nfte in the sector have low bargaining power. Steve Mariotti and NFTE has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mariotti Nfte to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Mariotti Nfte 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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.

High brand equity

– Mariotti Nfte has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mariotti Nfte to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Mariotti Nfte 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Mariotti Nfte is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Steve Mariotti and NFTE are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mariotti Nfte digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mariotti Nfte 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 Mariotti Nfte in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Mariotti Nfte 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.

Analytics focus

– Mariotti Nfte 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 J. Gregory Dees, Alice Oberfield 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.






Weaknesses Steve Mariotti and NFTE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Steve Mariotti and NFTE are -

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE, is just above the industry average. Mariotti Nfte 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Mariotti Nfte is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Mariotti Nfte needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mariotti Nfte to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE, in the dynamic environment Mariotti Nfte has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mariotti Nfte 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mariotti Nfte is planning to shift buying processes online.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mariotti Nfte is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mariotti Nfte 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 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 Mariotti Nfte supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Steve Mariotti and NFTE, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mariotti Nfte vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Steve Mariotti and NFTE HBR case study mentions - Mariotti Nfte takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Mariotti Nfte 's lucrative customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, J. Gregory Dees, Alice Oberfield suggests that, Mariotti Nfte 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Mariotti Nfte, firm in the HBR case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.




Opportunities Steve Mariotti and NFTE | 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mariotti Nfte 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, Mariotti Nfte can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mariotti Nfte operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Mariotti Nfte 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mariotti Nfte 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 Mariotti Nfte 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. Mariotti Nfte can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mariotti Nfte can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Mariotti Nfte 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mariotti Nfte to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Developing new processes and practices

– Mariotti Nfte can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Mariotti Nfte 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.

Loyalty marketing

– Mariotti Nfte 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mariotti Nfte 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Mariotti Nfte 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. Mariotti Nfte 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 Mariotti Nfte in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.




Threats Steve Mariotti and NFTE External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Mariotti Nfte has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mariotti Nfte needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

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 Mariotti Nfte in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Increasing wage structure of Mariotti Nfte

– 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 Mariotti Nfte.

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. Mariotti Nfte 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mariotti Nfte can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Mariotti Nfte 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.

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 Mariotti Nfte business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Mariotti Nfte 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Steve Mariotti and NFTE, Mariotti Nfte may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Mariotti Nfte 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

– Mariotti Nfte 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.

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. Mariotti Nfte needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Steve Mariotti and NFTE 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 Mariotti Nfte needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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