Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives
In September 2013, Sanjit "Bunker" Roy was honoured with an award for his vision and leadership in addressing global problems through his novel organization, Barefoot College (Barefoot). Barefoot's mission was to improve the lives of impoverished rural residents by upgrading their existing skills with training so the villages and their residents were self-sufficient. When he started the college in the state of Rajasthan, India, in 1972, Roy never dreamed that Barefoot would be able to affect the lives of millions of people in 24 countries. Barefoot's global footprint was spreading at a rapid pace with requests for even more locations. Roy wondered whether he should freeze the organization in its present state or continue to increase its presence with a centralized headquarters. Alternatively, he could replicate the autonomous model on a smaller scale, still adherent to the beliefs, values, and assumptions that were the foundation of Barefoot College. This case won second prize at the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2016 in the overall category. Dr Sunita Mehta is affiliated with GITAM University. Surya Kant Sharma is affiliated with XLRI-Xavier School of Management. Raavi Radhika is affiliated with GITAM University.
Swot Analysis of "Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives" written by Sunita Mehta, Surya Kant Sharma, Raavi Radhika includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Barefoot Roy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Barefoot Roy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Barefoot Roy
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 Barefoot Roy
Strengths Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Barefoot Roy in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Barefoot Roy 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Barefoot Roy is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Barefoot Roy in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Barefoot Roy has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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.
High brand equity
– Barefoot Roy has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Barefoot Roy to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Barefoot Roy to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Barefoot Roy to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Barefoot Roy digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Barefoot Roy 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.
Learning organization
- Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot Roy is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Barefoot Roy is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot Roy 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Barefoot Roy in the sector have low bargaining power. Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Barefoot Roy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives are -
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 Barefoot Roy supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Barefoot Roy vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Barefoot Roy has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Barefoot Roy, firm in the HBR case study Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Barefoot Roy has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Barefoot Roy 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, Barefoot Roy is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Barefoot Roy products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Barefoot Roy needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives, is just above the industry average. Barefoot Roy 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot Roy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives, in the dynamic environment Barefoot Roy has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Barefoot Roy has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Barefoot Roy 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.
Opportunities Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives | 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Barefoot Roy to increase its market reach. Barefoot Roy 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot Roy to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Barefoot Roy can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Barefoot Roy can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Barefoot Roy 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Barefoot Roy 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Barefoot Roy 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, Barefoot Roy is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Barefoot Roy 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Barefoot Roy 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.
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 Barefoot Roy in the consumer business. Now Barefoot Roy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Barefoot Roy can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Barefoot Roy 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.
Threats Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Barefoot Roy has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Barefoot Roy 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Barefoot Roy 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.
Environmental challenges
– Barefoot Roy 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. Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives, Barefoot Roy 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 .
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 Barefoot Roy business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Barefoot Roy 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Barefoot Roy with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Barefoot Roy 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. Barefoot Roy needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Barefoot Roy in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Barefoot Roy 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 Barefoot Roy 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot College of Tilonia: Lighting Up Rural Lives 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 Barefoot Roy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.