Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium
Educomp Solutions Ltd. was established in 1994 with the aim of providing for a customer's entire education lifecycle, from pre-school to higher education/vocational training, and appropriating value from the same customer multiple times. This strategy, over a period of 17 years, enabled Educomp to become the largest player in the education technology sector in India. Educomp took the organic route to growth, which it achieved largely through acquisitions and alliances. Its flagship brand, SmartClass, brought technology into the classroom with a vast repository of digital modules on every subject. However, in 2012 the government of India proposed changes in its education policy that - along with the country's economic uncertainty - threatened to erode the competitive advantage that ESL had gained over the years. The CEO of Educomp wondered how he could maintain his organization's leadership position. He was contemplating a three-pronged strategy that involved 1) expanding into the untapped Indian rural market segment with school learning solutions; 2) creating a virtual learning solution that included open-source content for students; and 3) investing further in research and development in order to develop innovative products to penetrate the Indian education market. Author Amita Mital is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.
Swot Analysis of "Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium" written by Amita Mital, Sanjay Dhir, Sonjoy Mohanty includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Educomp Education facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Educomp Education, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Educomp Education 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Educomp Education
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 Educomp Education
Strengths Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Educomp Education in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Educomp Education to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Educomp Education to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Educomp Education is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Educomp Education 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 Educomp Education in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Educomp Education 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 Amita Mital, Sanjay Dhir, Sonjoy Mohanty 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 Educomp Education in the sector have low bargaining power. Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Educomp Education to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Educomp Education digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Educomp Education 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Educomp Education in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Educomp Education has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Educomp Education 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Educomp Education is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Educomp Education 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 Educomp Education is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Educomp Education has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Educomp Education is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Educomp Education 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Educomp Education is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Educomp Education needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Educomp Education to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, in the dynamic environment Educomp Education has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Educomp Education has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Amita Mital, Sanjay Dhir, Sonjoy Mohanty suggests that, Educomp Education 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp Education has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, is just above the industry average. Educomp Education 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Educomp Education is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, it seems that the employees of Educomp Education 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Educomp Education 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Educomp Education 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium | 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Educomp Education can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Educomp Education operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Educomp Education in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Educomp Education can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Educomp Education can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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.
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 Educomp Education 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Educomp Education can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Educomp Education to increase its market reach. Educomp Education will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Educomp Education is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Educomp Education 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Educomp Education 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Educomp Education 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Educomp Education 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Educomp Education 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, Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Educomp Education with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Educomp Education is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Educomp Education 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Educomp Education 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 Educomp Education
– 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 Educomp Education.
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 Educomp Education in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium, Educomp Education may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Environmental challenges
– Educomp Education 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. Educomp Education can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 Educomp Education business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Educomp Education has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Educomp Education 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.
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. Educomp Education needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Educomp Education 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp: Shaping Education in the New Millennium 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 Educomp Education needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.