A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown
Twenty five years after its founding in members' homes, the non-denominational, evangelical Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, Arkansas had become a "mega-church", holding worship services on a 25-acre campus in one of the best locations in booming West Little Rock and attracting a combined 5,000 congregants on any given Sunday. But as the Fellowship congregation had grown, its leadership had come to believe that the Christian life must go beyond individual salvation and the responsibilities of family, friendship, and individual acts of charity and that church members must strive to be "socially responsible". In its effort to become a "church of irresistible influence", Fellowship Bible had taken the lead in organizing a massive citywide day of volunteer projects. In addition, ministries that had originated in small groups of church members-such as a sexual abstinence education program held in dozens of public and private schools-had taken on an independent life as well known free-standing organizations. Such efforts were made possible, in part, by charitable contributions made by Fellowship which totaled more than 25 percent ($3 million-plus) of its annual spending. This case tells the story of the next stage in church efforts to ameliorate social ills in Little Rock-an "external ministry" known as the "one church, one school, one neighborhood" project, announced in August 2004. Fellowship hoped that its assistance would demonstrably and measurably improve life in one of the city's most troubled areas-a 130-block area of central Little Rock. The project would include intensive mentoring of students one school in Little Rock's predominantly black South Midtown area (Fellowship itself was an almost entirely white congregation), efforts to work with African-American churches to encourage marriage in an area dominated by single-parent families, and an initiative to build new housing in the area. HKS Case Number 1780.0
Authors :: Howard Husock, Brent Coffin
Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Tags :: Government, International business, Organizational culture, Social responsibility, Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown" written by Howard Husock, Brent Coffin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Church Fellowship facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, International business, Organizational culture, Social responsibility, Strategic planning and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Church Fellowship, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Church Fellowship 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Church Fellowship
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 Church Fellowship
Strengths A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Church Fellowship in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Church Fellowship is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Church Fellowship to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Church Fellowship to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Church Fellowship has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Church Fellowship to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Church Fellowship
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Church Fellowship does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Church Fellowship in the sector have low bargaining power. A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Church Fellowship to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Church Fellowship 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Church Fellowship 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Church Fellowship 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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.
Training and development
– Church Fellowship has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Church Fellowship is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Church Fellowship 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 Howard Husock, Brent Coffin 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.
Weaknesses A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Church Fellowship 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. Church Fellowship 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 Church Fellowship has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Church Fellowship is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Church Fellowship needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Church Fellowship to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown, is just above the industry average. Church Fellowship 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Howard Husock, Brent Coffin suggests that, Church Fellowship 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Church Fellowship has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Church Fellowship 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Church Fellowship, firm in the HBR case study A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Church Fellowship is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Church Fellowship 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Church Fellowship 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.
Opportunities A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown | 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Church Fellowship 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Church Fellowship can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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.
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. Church Fellowship can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Church Fellowship 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Church Fellowship 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Church Fellowship has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Church Fellowship to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown case study. Church Fellowship can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Church Fellowship can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Church Fellowship 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 Church Fellowship to increase its market reach. Church Fellowship 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Church Fellowship 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Church Fellowship to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Church Fellowship can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Church Fellowship in the consumer business. Now Church Fellowship can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Church Fellowship 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Church Fellowship 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.
Threats A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Church Fellowship 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.
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. Church Fellowship can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Church Fellowship 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Church Fellowship 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Church Fellowship is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown, Church Fellowship 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Church Fellowship 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. Church Fellowship can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Church Fellowship has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Church Fellowship 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Church Fellowship 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 Church Fellowship
– 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 Church Fellowship.
Regulatory challenges
– Church Fellowship 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 A Mega-Church Takes on Urban Problems: Fellowship Bible Comes to South Midtown 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 Church Fellowship needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
