Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee
The case highlights the role of minority chambers of commerce and the background of Eve Hall, a regarded multi-sector leader asked to revive Wisconsin's African-American chamber. This case study examines the lending options that a minority chamber of commerce considers when seeking to maximum value to their constituency. Students learn the challenges minority small business owners and entrepreneurs face, the role of non-financial institutions / community-based organizations in addressing those challenges and the financial tools available to lenders and borrowers in this segment. Students learn how to analyze financing opportunities by assessing the value proposition of chambers of commerce, developing the risk-reward profile of each party involved and deliberate as members of a board to reach a final lending decision.
Swot Analysis of "Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee" written by Steven Rogers, Alterrell Mills includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Minority Chamber facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Demographics, Diversity, Entrepreneurial finance, Financial management, Financial markets, Managing people, Strategic planning, Succession planning and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Minority Chamber, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Minority Chamber 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Minority Chamber
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 Minority Chamber
Strengths Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Minority Chamber in Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Minority Chamber in the sector have low bargaining power. Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Minority Chamber to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Minority Chamber is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Minority Chamber 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Minority Chamber digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Minority Chamber 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Minority Chamber has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Minority Chamber 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.
Training and development
– Minority Chamber has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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
– Minority Chamber 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 Steven Rogers, Alterrell Mills 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Minority Chamber 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Minority Chamber to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Minority Chamber to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Minority Chamber
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Minority Chamber does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Minority Chamber in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Minority Chamber has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee HBR case study mentions - Minority Chamber 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Steven Rogers, Alterrell Mills suggests that, Minority Chamber 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee, is just above the industry average. Minority Chamber 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.
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 Minority Chamber supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Minority Chamber vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Minority Chamber is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Minority Chamber 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 - Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Minority Chamber 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Minority Chamber 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Minority Chamber 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. Minority Chamber 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Minority Chamber is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Minority Chamber needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Minority Chamber to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee | 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Minority Chamber 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. Minority Chamber 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. Minority Chamber 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.
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. Minority Chamber can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Minority Chamber can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Minority Chamber 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 Minority Chamber 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 Minority Chamber to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Minority Chamber to increase its market reach. Minority Chamber 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.
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 Minority Chamber in the consumer business. Now Minority Chamber can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Minority Chamber 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Minority Chamber 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.
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 Minority Chamber 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Minority Chamber can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Minority Chamber is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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.
Threats Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee are -
Environmental challenges
– Minority Chamber 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. Minority Chamber can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee, Minority Chamber 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 Minority Chamber is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Minority Chamber 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
– Minority Chamber 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.
Increasing wage structure of Minority Chamber
– 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 Minority Chamber.
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.
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. Minority Chamber 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Minority Chamber 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.
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 Minority Chamber in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Minority Chamber 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee .
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 Minority Chamber business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Minority Chamber 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee 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 Minority Chamber needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.