Case Study Description of MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market
MJINI--Urban Youth Experts was founded by two recent college graduates as a research consulting firm, focusing on the buying patterns and lifestyle preferences of the urban youth who were setting many fashion trends but whom marketers found difficult to reach. Not only could the founders leverage their backgrounds, they could help their communities by communicating, building respect, and giving back to youth groups. Although they met with some success, they faced a number of questions typical to start-up companies: How fast to grow, how and whom to hire, how to train new recruits, how to finance growth, determining the right marketing and consulting product, determining its real market worth and billing rates, and identifying the greatest opportunities.
Authors :: Michael Lelyveld, Serge Paul-Emile, David Wylie
Swot Analysis of "MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market" written by Michael Lelyveld, Serge Paul-Emile, David Wylie includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Youth Mjini facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Market research, Race and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Youth Mjini, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Youth Mjini 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Youth Mjini
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 Youth Mjini
Strengths MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Youth Mjini in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Youth Mjini to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Youth Mjini to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Youth Mjini 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Youth Mjini is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 Youth Mjini 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.
Training and development
– Youth Mjini has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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.
Analytics focus
– Youth Mjini 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 Michael Lelyveld, Serge Paul-Emile, David Wylie 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Youth Mjini has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Youth Mjini 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Youth Mjini 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Youth Mjini is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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
– Youth Mjini 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 Youth Mjini in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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
– Youth Mjini has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Youth Mjini to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Youth Mjini 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Youth Mjini 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. Youth Mjini 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Youth Mjini 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 Youth Mjini 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Youth Mjini is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Youth Mjini 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 - MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market, in the dynamic environment Youth Mjini has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Youth Mjini has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Youth Mjini is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Youth Mjini needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Youth Mjini to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Lelyveld, Serge Paul-Emile, David Wylie suggests that, Youth Mjini 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Youth Mjini 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.
Opportunities MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market | 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market are -
Loyalty marketing
– Youth Mjini 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
– Youth Mjini can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Youth Mjini 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Youth Mjini has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Youth Mjini to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market case study. Youth Mjini can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Youth Mjini 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Youth Mjini to increase its market reach. Youth Mjini 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Youth Mjini can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Youth Mjini operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Youth Mjini 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, Youth Mjini 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, MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Youth Mjini 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
– Youth Mjini 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Youth Mjini 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, Youth Mjini is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Youth Mjini 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Youth Mjini with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Youth Mjini 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Youth Mjini 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.
Increasing wage structure of Youth Mjini
– 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 Youth Mjini.
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. Youth Mjini 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.
Environmental challenges
– Youth Mjini 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. Youth Mjini 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 Youth Mjini in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Youth Mjini business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Youth Mjini needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Youth Mjini has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Youth Mjini 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Youth Mjini 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.
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 Youth Mjini.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 MJINI: Understanding the Urban Youth Market 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 Youth Mjini needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
