The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact
The complex problems of our time increasingly demand creative, adaptive and flexible governance structures. The author shows that a new breed of 'temporary' organization is emerging to tackle some of the world's most wicked problems, achieve targeted results, then shut down. She provides examples, including an initiative to combat AIDS that involves The Gates Foundation, Merck Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and UNITAID. She then describes five key characteristics of the new mindset required to build short-term organizations with long-term impact.
Swot Analysis of "The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact" written by Anita M. McGahan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Term Unitaid facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Managing organizations and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Term Unitaid, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Term Unitaid 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Term Unitaid
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 Term Unitaid
Strengths The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Term Unitaid in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Term Unitaid 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Term Unitaid to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Term Unitaid to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Term Unitaid has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Term Unitaid to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Term Unitaid 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 Term Unitaid 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)
– Term Unitaid 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Term Unitaid is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Term Unitaid has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Term Unitaid 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Term Unitaid is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 Term Unitaid 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.
Organizational Resilience of Term Unitaid
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Term Unitaid does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Term Unitaid 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 Anita M. McGahan 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Term Unitaid is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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.
Weaknesses The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Term Unitaid 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact HBR case study mentions - Term Unitaid 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Term Unitaid, firm in the HBR case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Term Unitaid 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Term Unitaid 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 - The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Term Unitaid 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact, is just above the industry average. Term Unitaid 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 Term Unitaid supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Term Unitaid vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact, in the dynamic environment Term Unitaid has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Term Unitaid has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 Term Unitaid 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Term Unitaid is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact | 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Term Unitaid 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Term Unitaid 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Term Unitaid 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Term Unitaid to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Term Unitaid has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Term Unitaid to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact case study. Term Unitaid can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Term Unitaid 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.
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 Term Unitaid in the consumer business. Now Term Unitaid can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Term Unitaid 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. Term Unitaid 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Term Unitaid 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Term Unitaid 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Term Unitaid can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Term Unitaid operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Term Unitaid to increase its market reach. Term Unitaid 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Term Unitaid is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Term Unitaid can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Term Unitaid 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.
Environmental challenges
– Term Unitaid 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. Term Unitaid can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 Term Unitaid business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact, Term Unitaid 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 .
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Term Unitaid.
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. Term Unitaid needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Term Unitaid 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 Term Unitaid
– 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 Term Unitaid.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Term Unitaid 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 Term Unitaid 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Term Unitaid 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact .
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 Term Unitaid in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 The Power of Coordinated Action: Short-Term Organizations with Long-Term Impact 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 Term Unitaid needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
