Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook
This case study of social innovation and entrepreneurship looks closely at the growth of a not-for-profit enterprise. Dans la rue was founded in 1988 when a "rebel priest," Father Emmett Johns, bought a used van and started going into the streets of Montreal to help youth at risk directly - hence, the name of the organization, French for "in the street." In over 25 years, the organization has grown steadily; in 2013, it operated in three locations with 65 employees and over 100 volunteers. Elements of this case are common to any start-up organization: over time, it grows, learns, acquires legitimacy, and becomes increasingly professionalized. But there are also unique elements to Dans la rue: a vulnerable clientele, certain unsettling realities (drugs, theft, prostitution, etc.), and the need to be involved with yet remain distant from government agencies and funding sources. This case takes a detailed look at how the organization's executives have met the challenges of balancing the needs of street youth with the concerns of private donors and government agencies while keeping Dans la rue sustainable.
Swot Analysis of "Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook" written by Brian King, Wendy Reid includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dans Rue facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Social responsibility, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dans Rue, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dans Rue 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dans Rue
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 Dans Rue
Strengths Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dans Rue in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dans Rue in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dans Rue is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dans Rue to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dans Rue to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Dans Rue is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Dans Rue 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 Brian King, Wendy Reid 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.
Training and development
– Dans Rue has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dans Rue has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dans Rue 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 lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dans Rue in the sector have low bargaining power. Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dans Rue to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dans Rue 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.
Learning organization
- Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook are -
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Dans Rue supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dans Rue vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dans Rue is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Dans Rue 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dans Rue 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook, is just above the industry average. Dans Rue 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook, 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Dans Rue 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Dans Rue 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dans Rue 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 - Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Brian King, Wendy Reid suggests that, Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Dans Rue needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dans Rue to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook | 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook are -
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 Dans Rue in the consumer business. Now Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue to increase its market reach. Dans Rue 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Dans Rue to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook case study. Dans Rue can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dans Rue is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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.
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 Dans Rue 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dans Rue 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dans Rue 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dans Rue 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Dans Rue 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dans Rue 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, Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook, 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dans Rue 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.
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 Dans Rue.
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. Dans Rue needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dans Rue 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dans Rue 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dans Rue 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 Dans Rue in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dans Rue with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Dans Rue 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. Dans Rue 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Dans Rue 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dans Rue has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dans Rue 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dans Rue demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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 Dans la rue: Balancing the Heart and the Pocketbook 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 Dans Rue needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
