Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours
This case examines Project Salta (Salta) a multi-year collaborative experiment among financial institutions, a foreign government aid agency, and a global management school. Binding goals of Salta were to provide practical business information in sessions of short duration to micro-entrepreneurs operating at or near the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid, while keeping sponsors' costs exceptionally low. Salta serves as a test case and potential template for organizations investing in educating micro-entrepreneurs via lessons that are information, engaging, memorable and affordable. Details are provided regarding the origins and setting of the Salta program, its targeted participants, and parameters for the roll-out of the program. Students using the case are challenged to think creatively about how they would translate their understanding of basic business knowledge into the fundamentals needed to thrive as a micro-entrepreneur in a developing country. The case is especially relevant to individuals or organizations considering or engaging in corporate social responsibility opportunities. It is also highly relevant to empowerment of women at or near the base of the socio-economic pyramid, as well as micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries. Lessons center on challenges and advantages of educational philanthropy for these populations.
Swot Analysis of "Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours" written by Christine Pearson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Salta Micro facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Salta Micro, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Salta Micro 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Salta Micro
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 Salta Micro
Strengths Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Salta Micro in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Salta Micro has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Salta Micro 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Salta Micro in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Salta Micro is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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.
Training and development
– Salta Micro has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Salta Micro in the sector have low bargaining power. Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Salta Micro to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Salta Micro has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Salta Micro to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Salta Micro 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 Salta Micro in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Salta Micro 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Salta Micro is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Salta Micro 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 Christine Pearson 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.
Learning organization
- Salta Micro 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 Salta Micro is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Salta Micro 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.
Weaknesses Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours are -
Need for greater diversity
– Salta Micro 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Salta Micro is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours, is just above the industry average. Salta Micro 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours, it seems that the employees of Salta Micro 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Salta Micro has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Salta Micro products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Salta Micro needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Salta Micro 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Salta Micro has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours, in the dynamic environment Salta Micro has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Salta Micro has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Salta Micro 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Salta Micro is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours | 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours are -
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. Salta Micro can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Salta Micro can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Salta Micro to increase its market reach. Salta Micro 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Salta Micro 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Salta Micro 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.
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 Salta Micro 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Salta Micro 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Salta Micro 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, Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Salta Micro 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 Salta Micro to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Salta Micro 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.
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. Salta Micro 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. Salta Micro 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Salta Micro has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Salta Micro to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours case study. Salta Micro can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Salta Micro 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Salta Micro 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.
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 Salta Micro in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Salta Micro can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Salta Micro 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Salta Micro 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Salta Micro in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Salta Micro
– 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 Salta Micro.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours, Salta Micro 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Salta Micro is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Salta Micro with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Salta Micro 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Salta Micro 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. Salta Micro needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Empowering Female Micro-entrepreneurs through Education: Raising Half the Sky in Just Three Hours 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 Salta Micro needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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