Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain
Ellen Moore is working for a large multinational financial institution in Bahrain and is offered a promotion to one of two jobs, between which she can choose. When she informs her boss of her choice several days later, he tells her she cannot have the one she chose because it would mean periodic travel in Saudi Arabia, which he believes would not be possible for a woman.
Authors :: Henry W. Lane, Gail Ellement, Martha L. Maznevski
Swot Analysis of "Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain" written by Henry W. Lane, Gail Ellement, Martha L. Maznevski includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bahrain Ellen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Personnel policies and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bahrain Ellen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bahrain Ellen 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bahrain Ellen
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 Bahrain Ellen
Strengths Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bahrain Ellen in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bahrain Ellen digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bahrain Ellen 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bahrain Ellen 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.
Analytics focus
– Bahrain Ellen 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 Henry W. Lane, Gail Ellement, Martha L. Maznevski 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bahrain Ellen 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Bahrain Ellen
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bahrain Ellen does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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
– Bahrain Ellen has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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.
Learning organization
- Bahrain Ellen 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 Bahrain Ellen is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Bahrain Ellen has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bahrain Ellen to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bahrain Ellen 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bahrain Ellen is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bahrain Ellen in the sector have low bargaining power. Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bahrain Ellen to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bahrain Ellen 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain, is just above the industry average. Bahrain Ellen 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, Henry W. Lane, Gail Ellement, Martha L. Maznevski suggests that, Bahrain Ellen 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bahrain Ellen is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Bahrain Ellen needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bahrain Ellen to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bahrain Ellen, firm in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Bahrain Ellen 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bahrain Ellen 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain, in the dynamic environment Bahrain Ellen has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bahrain Ellen has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain HBR case study mentions - Bahrain Ellen 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bahrain Ellen is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bahrain Ellen is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain | 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bahrain Ellen 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bahrain Ellen has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bahrain Ellen to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain case study. Bahrain Ellen can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bahrain Ellen 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 Bahrain Ellen to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bahrain Ellen can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bahrain Ellen operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bahrain Ellen can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bahrain Ellen 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bahrain Ellen can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bahrain Ellen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bahrain Ellen to increase its market reach. Bahrain Ellen 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bahrain Ellen 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.
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 Bahrain Ellen 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bahrain Ellen 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bahrain Ellen 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bahrain Ellen to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain are -
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. Bahrain Ellen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bahrain Ellen 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.
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. Bahrain Ellen 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bahrain Ellen is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Bahrain Ellen.
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. Bahrain Ellen needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bahrain Ellen with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bahrain Ellen 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain .
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Bahrain Ellen 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bahrain Ellen 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.
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 Bahrain Ellen business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Bahrain 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 Bahrain Ellen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
