Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum
"Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum" charts the many different career paths of Hooks, a civil right activist and pioneer. Hooks' positions ranged from lawyer, judge, preacher, entrepreneur to the first African American commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and to the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to the co-founder of the non-profit Children's Health Forum (CHF). CHF's mission was to eradicate lead poisoning in children in the United States. The case provides an overview of lead poisoning in the U.S., including how it is measured, its causes, and legislation enacted to prevent it. The case asks students to reflect on Hooks' leadership choices and his decision to launch CHF. How would they assess Hooks as a leader? What made him a strong leader? Given Hooks' past experiences, do they think that Hooks made the right decision to focus on lead poisoning after leaving the NAACP? Is this an area where he could have the most impact?
Authors :: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Howard Koh, Abbye Atkinson
Swot Analysis of "Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Howard Koh, Abbye Atkinson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hooks Poisoning facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Health, Leadership, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization,
wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hooks Poisoning, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hooks Poisoning 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hooks Poisoning
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 Hooks Poisoning
Strengths Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hooks Poisoning in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hooks Poisoning 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Hooks Poisoning 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 Hooks Poisoning in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hooks Poisoning is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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.
High brand equity
– Hooks Poisoning has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hooks Poisoning to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hooks Poisoning in the sector have low bargaining power. Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hooks Poisoning to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Hooks Poisoning is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hooks Poisoning to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hooks Poisoning to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hooks Poisoning is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Hooks Poisoning is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Hooks Poisoning 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 Hooks Poisoning is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Hooks Poisoning
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hooks Poisoning does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hooks Poisoning in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum, it seems that the employees of Hooks Poisoning 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hooks Poisoning products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hooks Poisoning needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Hooks Poisoning has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hooks Poisoning is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hooks Poisoning 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum, in the dynamic environment Hooks Poisoning has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hooks Poisoning has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hooks Poisoning 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. Hooks Poisoning 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hooks Poisoning 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 - Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hooks Poisoning is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hooks Poisoning is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Hooks Poisoning needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hooks Poisoning to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hooks Poisoning 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.
Opportunities Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum | 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hooks Poisoning 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hooks Poisoning 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, Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hooks Poisoning 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 Hooks Poisoning to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Hooks Poisoning 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Hooks Poisoning can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hooks Poisoning 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hooks Poisoning to increase its market reach. Hooks Poisoning 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hooks Poisoning has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hooks Poisoning to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum case study. Hooks Poisoning can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hooks Poisoning 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hooks Poisoning 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hooks Poisoning to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Hooks Poisoning can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hooks Poisoning can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hooks Poisoning operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hooks Poisoning is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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.
Threats Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum are -
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 Hooks Poisoning business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hooks Poisoning 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum, Hooks Poisoning 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hooks Poisoning 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 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.
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. Hooks Poisoning can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hooks Poisoning with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Hooks Poisoning
– 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 Hooks Poisoning.
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.
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 Hooks Poisoning.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hooks Poisoning has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hooks Poisoning 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.
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. Hooks Poisoning 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.
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 Hooks Poisoning in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum 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 Hooks Poisoning needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.