Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking
"Margaret Linnane was distraught and dumbfounded. In addition, she was fuming. She had just arrived home from the funders' meeting where she had been asked questions that came close to challenging the very purpose of her nonprofit organization. She had been unprepared for the very tough questions the funders had asked and she knew that she would need to be much better prepared for the next specially scheduled meeting in one month. She needed answers to the funders' questions and she wondered how to achieve these answers in four short weeks. Linnane and the Rollins College Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership Center (PNLC, or the Center) staff put other efforts on hold while they worked intensely to prepare for the upcoming meeting. They gathered all the documents on the PNLC's mission, vision and strategic plan. Brainstorming started. What information did they need to compile to convince the funders that the PNLC's services (such as networking among established chief executive officers (CEOs) and foundation directors, and introducing newcomers to the nonprofit community) contributed to the professionalization of nonprofit leaders and organizations while addressing critical community issues and fulfilling the PNLC's mission - even if such services had not yet generated any revenue? What outcome measures were appropriate for assessing the success of non-income-generating activities such as networking? To start to search for answers to such questions (and others), Linnane decided to review PNLC's performance from the last two years and to build a strategy for 2011/12. Time was of the essence because without the support of funders, Linnane would be hard-pressed to continue offering the now well-accepted networking activities."
Swot Analysis of "Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking" written by Mary Conway Dato-on, Margaret Linnane includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Linnane Pnlc's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Networking, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Linnane Pnlc's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Linnane Pnlc's 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Linnane Pnlc's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Linnane Pnlc's
Strengths Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Linnane Pnlc's in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Linnane Pnlc's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Linnane Pnlc's in the sector have low bargaining power. Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Linnane Pnlc's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Linnane Pnlc's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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.
Training and development
– Linnane Pnlc's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Linnane Pnlc's 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 Linnane Pnlc's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Linnane Pnlc's 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 Mary Conway Dato-on, Margaret Linnane 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Linnane Pnlc's 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 Linnane Pnlc's 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)
– Linnane Pnlc's 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Linnane Pnlc's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Linnane Pnlc's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Linnane Pnlc's 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Linnane Pnlc's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Linnane Pnlc's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking HBR case study mentions - Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking, it seems that the employees of Linnane Pnlc's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Linnane Pnlc's 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 - Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Linnane Pnlc's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Linnane Pnlc's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Linnane Pnlc's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Linnane Pnlc's 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Linnane Pnlc's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Linnane Pnlc's, firm in the HBR case study Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking | 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking are -
Manufacturing automation
– Linnane Pnlc's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Linnane Pnlc's to increase its market reach. Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Linnane Pnlc's 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. Linnane Pnlc's 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.
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. Linnane Pnlc's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Linnane Pnlc's in the consumer business. Now Linnane Pnlc's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Linnane Pnlc's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Linnane Pnlc's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Linnane Pnlc's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Linnane Pnlc's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Linnane Pnlc's 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 Linnane Pnlc's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Linnane Pnlc's 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Linnane Pnlc's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Linnane Pnlc's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking case study. Linnane Pnlc's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking are -
Regulatory challenges
– Linnane Pnlc's 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Linnane Pnlc's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Linnane Pnlc's is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Linnane Pnlc's 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. Linnane Pnlc's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Linnane Pnlc's.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Linnane Pnlc's 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking .
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. Linnane Pnlc's 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Linnane Pnlc's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Linnane Pnlc's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Linnane Pnlc's in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Linnane Pnlc's
– 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 Linnane Pnlc's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Linnane Pnlc's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking 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 Linnane Pnlc's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Rollins College Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy Center: The Importance of Networking
