Case Study Description of Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries
The Singapore Public Library system was transformed from being mediocre at best to world class using information technology, progressive human resources management, and marketing approaches unusual for governmental agencies.
Authors :: Roger Hallowell, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Boon Siong Neo
Swot Analysis of "Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries" written by Roger Hallowell, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Boon Siong Neo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mediocre Libraries facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation, Government, Human resource management, IT, Marketing, Supply chain and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mediocre Libraries, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mediocre Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mediocre Libraries
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 Mediocre Libraries
Strengths Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mediocre Libraries in Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Mediocre Libraries is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mediocre Libraries has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mediocre Libraries 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.
High brand equity
– Mediocre Libraries has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mediocre Libraries to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Mediocre Libraries
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mediocre Libraries does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Mediocre Libraries 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 Mediocre Libraries in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mediocre Libraries digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mediocre Libraries 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mediocre Libraries 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mediocre Libraries in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Mediocre Libraries 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 Roger Hallowell, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Boon Siong Neo 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mediocre Libraries in the sector have low bargaining power. Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mediocre Libraries to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mediocre Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mediocre Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries HBR case study mentions - Mediocre Libraries 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mediocre Libraries 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mediocre Libraries is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Mediocre Libraries needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mediocre Libraries to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mediocre Libraries 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 - Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mediocre Libraries, firm in the HBR case study Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Mediocre Libraries supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mediocre Libraries vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mediocre Libraries 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Roger Hallowell, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Boon Siong Neo suggests that, Mediocre Libraries 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries, it seems that the employees of Mediocre Libraries 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mediocre Libraries products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mediocre Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries, is just above the industry average. Mediocre Libraries 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.
Opportunities Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries | 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries are -
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 Mediocre Libraries in the consumer business. Now Mediocre Libraries can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
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. Mediocre Libraries can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mediocre Libraries is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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.
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. Mediocre Libraries can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mediocre Libraries has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mediocre Libraries to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries case study. Mediocre Libraries can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mediocre Libraries 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mediocre Libraries can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mediocre Libraries operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mediocre Libraries 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mediocre Libraries 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mediocre Libraries can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
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. Mediocre Libraries can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Mediocre Libraries business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Mediocre Libraries needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Mediocre Libraries
– 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 Mediocre Libraries.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
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 Mediocre Libraries.
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. Mediocre Libraries 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mediocre Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mediocre Libraries 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Mediocre Libraries 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.
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 Mediocre Libraries in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Mediocre Libraries 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. Mediocre Libraries can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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 Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries 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 Mediocre Libraries needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
