Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International
In 1991 Marriott International established a program called Pathways to Independence to recruit and train people from the welfare rolls. The program graduated over 1,000 people in eight years and retained about 20% more of its participants than regular hires. Now the program director wished to double the program size. The questions: Was this feasible with a decreasing supply of employable welfare recipients? Could the quality control required at Marriott be maintained with such a large and rapid expansion?
Swot Analysis of "Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Marriott Welfare facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Currency, Developing employees, Employee retention, Growth strategy, Innovation, Leadership, Social enterprise, Supply chain, Talent management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions,
wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Marriott Welfare, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Marriott Welfare 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Marriott Welfare
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 Marriott Welfare
Strengths Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Marriott Welfare in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Marriott Welfare 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.
Analytics focus
– Marriott Welfare 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Marriott Welfare is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Marriott Welfare has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Marriott Welfare has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Marriott Welfare in the sector have low bargaining power. Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Marriott Welfare to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Marriott Welfare has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Marriott Welfare to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Marriott Welfare digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Marriott Welfare 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 Marriott Welfare in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Marriott Welfare is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Marriott Welfare has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Marriott Welfare to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Marriott Welfare to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne suggests that, Marriott Welfare 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Marriott Welfare 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 - Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International, in the dynamic environment Marriott Welfare has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Marriott Welfare has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Marriott Welfare 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Marriott Welfare 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Marriott Welfare 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Marriott Welfare 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Marriott Welfare, firm in the HBR case study Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International HBR case study mentions - Marriott Welfare 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Marriott Welfare has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Marriott Welfare is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International | 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Marriott Welfare can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Marriott Welfare 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. Marriott Welfare 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Marriott Welfare can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Marriott Welfare operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Marriott Welfare 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 Marriott Welfare to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Marriott Welfare can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Marriott Welfare 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Marriott Welfare to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Marriott Welfare 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Marriott Welfare can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Marriott Welfare 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Marriott Welfare has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Marriott Welfare to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International case study. Marriott Welfare can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Marriott Welfare in the consumer business. Now Marriott Welfare can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Marriott Welfare can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Marriott Welfare is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Marriott Welfare is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Marriott Welfare business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Marriott Welfare 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.
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 Marriott Welfare in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Marriott Welfare 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Marriott Welfare 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Marriott Welfare has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Marriott Welfare 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.
Environmental challenges
– Marriott Welfare 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. Marriott Welfare can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Marriott Welfare with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Marriott Welfare 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.
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. Marriott Welfare needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Pathways to Independence: Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International 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 Marriott Welfare needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
