Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike
The case follows Mel Young, founder and president of Homeless World Cup, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate homelessness around the world. Homeless World Cup organizes annual football (i.e., soccer) tournaments in host cities and through its grassroots partner organizations recruits and trains homeless people to play in the events. The case highlights the early days of founding and building the organization, including Young's inspiration for the idea, and also covers the importance of branding and marketing and the organization's relationship with Nike.
Authors :: George Foster, Jocelyn Hornblower, Norm O'Reilly
Swot Analysis of "Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike" written by George Foster, Jocelyn Hornblower, Norm O'Reilly includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Homeless Cup facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Joint ventures, Marketing and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Homeless Cup, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Homeless Cup 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Homeless Cup
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 Homeless Cup
Strengths Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Homeless Cup in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Homeless Cup 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Homeless Cup is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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.
Learning organization
- Homeless Cup 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 Homeless Cup is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Homeless Cup in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Homeless Cup digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Homeless Cup 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.
High brand equity
– Homeless Cup has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Homeless Cup to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Homeless Cup 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Homeless Cup has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Homeless Cup 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Homeless Cup in the sector have low bargaining power. Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Homeless Cup to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Homeless Cup
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Homeless Cup does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Homeless Cup has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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.
Weaknesses Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, George Foster, Jocelyn Hornblower, Norm O'Reilly suggests that, Homeless Cup 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, Homeless Cup 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Homeless Cup products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Homeless Cup needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike, in the dynamic environment Homeless Cup has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Homeless Cup has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Homeless Cup, firm in the HBR case study Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Homeless Cup 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Homeless Cup 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 - Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Homeless Cup 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Homeless Cup 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. Homeless Cup 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Homeless Cup 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.
Opportunities Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike | 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Homeless Cup is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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.
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 Homeless Cup in the consumer business. Now Homeless Cup can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Homeless Cup 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Homeless Cup 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.
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. Homeless Cup 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. Homeless Cup 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Homeless Cup can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Homeless Cup 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Homeless Cup to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Homeless Cup 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Homeless Cup can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Homeless Cup 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, Homeless Cup 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Homeless Cup 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Homeless Cup 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 Homeless Cup to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Homeless Cup can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike, Homeless Cup 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
– Homeless Cup 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. Homeless Cup can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Homeless Cup with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Homeless Cup.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Homeless Cup in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Homeless Cup can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Homeless Cup has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Homeless Cup 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.
Increasing wage structure of Homeless Cup
– 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 Homeless Cup.
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. Homeless Cup needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Homeless Cup 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.
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 Homeless Cup business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Homeless Cup 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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 Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike 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 Homeless Cup needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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