Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project
This case is based on an ex post assessment conducted in Peru. The circumstances surrounding this evaluation were very restrictive: a limited budget as well as lacking base line and adequate monitoring system. The evaluation was requested at the endof the project, with the evaluators having no control over the information gathered earlier; however, they tried to use the best methodological options available to assess the program. Suddenly, an opportunity presents itself for the evaluators to recommend a better assessment methodology for the second stage in this program and even to suggest some adjustments for its original program design. A special feature in this case is that students do not start from scratch: they have information about what happened in the first stage of the project, and they can use it to build, amidst a new setting, a sounder, more ambitious evaluation procedure for the second stage, before its launching. The social and economic effects/impact of the project's first stage were measured with a non-experimental method, without a control group. For their evaluation work, the consultants relied on two surveys administered to a group of selected women's organizations that had received micro-loans. The first survey focused on the progress made by business ventures funded with these loans, and the second one probed the social impact of the project on members' households. Against the described backdrop, in the first stage, the evaluators used the perceptions of the people involved in the project to gather information on their earlier situation. The second stage evaluation would have a more adequate assessment design and would be submitted with recommendations for project execution improvements. To this end, consultants would have to submit their technical plan and the budget required to successfully meet assessment expectations. Universidad del PacA?fico' case collection
Swot Analysis of "Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project" written by Arlette Beltran, Betty Alvarado, Hanny Cueva includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Evaluators Stage facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Evaluators Stage, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Evaluators Stage 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Evaluators Stage
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 Evaluators Stage
Strengths Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Evaluators Stage in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Evaluators Stage in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Evaluators Stage is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Evaluators Stage is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Evaluators Stage 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 Evaluators Stage is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Evaluators Stage 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Evaluators Stage has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Evaluators Stage 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Evaluators Stage digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Evaluators Stage 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Evaluators Stage is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Evaluators Stage 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 Arlette Beltran, Betty Alvarado, Hanny Cueva 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Evaluators Stage 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.
High brand equity
– Evaluators Stage has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Evaluators Stage to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Evaluators Stage, firm in the HBR case study Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Evaluators Stage 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project, it seems that the employees of Evaluators Stage 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Evaluators Stage has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Evaluators Stage is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Evaluators Stage needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Evaluators Stage to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Evaluators Stage 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 Evaluators Stage products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Evaluators Stage needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arlette Beltran, Betty Alvarado, Hanny Cueva suggests that, Evaluators Stage 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Evaluators Stage 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project, in the dynamic environment Evaluators Stage has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Evaluators Stage has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Evaluators Stage 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. Evaluators Stage 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.
Opportunities Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project | 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Evaluators Stage can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Evaluators Stage 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 Evaluators Stage to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Evaluators Stage 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.
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 Evaluators Stage in the consumer business. Now Evaluators Stage can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Evaluators Stage 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, Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project, 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
– Evaluators Stage can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Evaluators Stage 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Evaluators Stage 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.
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. Evaluators Stage 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. Evaluators Stage 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. Evaluators Stage can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Evaluators Stage is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Evaluators Stage 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Evaluators Stage in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Evaluators Stage with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Evaluators Stage 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Evaluators Stage 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Evaluators Stage 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.
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.
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 Evaluators Stage 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, Evaluators Stage 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project .
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. Evaluators Stage 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
– Evaluators Stage has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Evaluators Stage 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.
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. Evaluators Stage 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Evaluators Stage is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Evaluators Stage 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.
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. Evaluators Stage can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Credit for Women's Microenterprises: Assessing a Social Project 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 Evaluators Stage needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.