Swot Analysis of "Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B)" written by Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin, Marc Shotland includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Microsavings Philippines facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Project management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Microsavings Philippines, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Microsavings Philippines 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Microsavings Philippines
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 Microsavings Philippines
Strengths Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Microsavings Philippines in Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Microsavings Philippines 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Microsavings Philippines 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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
– Microsavings Philippines has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Microsavings Philippines to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Microsavings Philippines 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 Microsavings Philippines in the sector have low bargaining power. Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Microsavings Philippines to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Microsavings Philippines is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Microsavings Philippines 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 Microsavings Philippines in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Microsavings Philippines digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Microsavings Philippines 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Microsavings Philippines has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Microsavings Philippines has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Microsavings Philippines is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Microsavings Philippines 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.
Weaknesses Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Microsavings Philippines 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Microsavings Philippines 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Microsavings Philippines 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Microsavings Philippines 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Microsavings Philippines products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Microsavings Philippines needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B), is just above the industry average. Microsavings Philippines 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Microsavings Philippines is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin, Marc Shotland suggests that, Microsavings Philippines 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
Microsavings Philippines 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B), it seems that the employees of Microsavings Philippines don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Opportunities Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) | 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Microsavings Philippines 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, Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Microsavings Philippines can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Microsavings Philippines to increase its market reach. Microsavings Philippines will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Microsavings Philippines 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Microsavings Philippines 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Microsavings Philippines 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.
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. Microsavings Philippines can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Microsavings Philippines in the consumer business. Now Microsavings Philippines can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Microsavings Philippines 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Microsavings Philippines to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Microsavings Philippines 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Microsavings Philippines 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 Microsavings Philippines to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Microsavings Philippines can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Microsavings Philippines has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Microsavings Philippines to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) case study. Microsavings Philippines can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Microsavings Philippines is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Microsavings Philippines 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.
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. Microsavings Philippines 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
– Microsavings Philippines 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. Microsavings Philippines can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 Microsavings Philippines in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Microsavings Philippines 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.
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. Microsavings Philippines needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Microsavings Philippines 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.
Increasing wage structure of Microsavings Philippines
– 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 Microsavings Philippines.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Microsavings Philippines 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Microsavings Philippines with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B) 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 Microsavings Philippines needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.