6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan
This case describes how community leaders in Amman, Jordan used a community organizing framework to launch and manage a major campaign, 6 Minutes, to encourage residents to commit time to reading for pleasure. Using Marshall Ganz's framework for building civic leadership capacity, a local service organization, Ruwwad, based in the urban Amman community of Jabal Al Natheef, organized and coached hundreds of participants, encountering many challenges and milestones along the way-from cultural obstacles to community celebrations. Even before the 6 Minutes campaign concluded, the organizers were eager to launch a new campaign, noting that the success of 6 Minutes laid a firm foundation for the next campaign, building leadership, organizing power and capacity. At the end of the case, the protagonists question how to best apply the learning from 6 Minutes to their next campaign.
Authors :: Marshall Ganz, Laura Winig, Rawan Zeine
Swot Analysis of "6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan" written by Marshall Ganz, Laura Winig, Rawan Zeine includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Minutes Amman facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Gender, Leadership, Leadership development, Leading teams and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Minutes Amman, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Minutes Amman 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Minutes Amman
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 Minutes Amman
Strengths 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Minutes Amman in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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.
Learning organization
- Minutes Amman 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 Minutes Amman is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Minutes Amman 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.
Training and development
– Minutes Amman has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Minutes Amman 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 Minutes Amman in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Minutes Amman has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Minutes Amman to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Minutes Amman is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Minutes Amman has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Minutes Amman 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.
Analytics focus
– Minutes Amman 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 Marshall Ganz, Laura Winig, Rawan Zeine 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Minutes Amman 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Minutes Amman digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Minutes Amman 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Minutes Amman to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Minutes Amman to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Minutes Amman 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 Minutes Amman 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Minutes Amman is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Minutes Amman needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Minutes Amman to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 Minutes Amman has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Minutes Amman 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Minutes Amman 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on 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 Minutes Amman supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Minutes Amman vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Minutes Amman is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Minutes Amman 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 - 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan, is just above the industry average. Minutes Amman 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.
Opportunities 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan | 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Minutes Amman to increase its market reach. Minutes Amman 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Minutes Amman 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, 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Minutes Amman 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
– Minutes Amman 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Minutes Amman 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Minutes Amman 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Minutes Amman is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Minutes Amman can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Minutes Amman operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 Minutes Amman 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Minutes Amman 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Minutes Amman to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Minutes Amman 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 Minutes Amman to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Minutes Amman has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Minutes Amman to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan case study. Minutes Amman can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Minutes Amman 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.
Threats 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan are -
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 Minutes Amman in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Minutes Amman 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.
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 Minutes Amman.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Minutes Amman is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Minutes Amman has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Minutes Amman 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Minutes Amman 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Minutes Amman with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Minutes Amman business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Minutes Amman 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.
Environmental challenges
– Minutes Amman 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. Minutes Amman can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Minutes Amman 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 6 Minutes: Community Organizing in Amman, Jordan 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 Minutes Amman needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
