SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools
In response to the education crisis in South Africa, two young MBA graduates start SPARK Schools, a network of low-fee, private primary schools; however, teacher candidates often lack the skills, knowledge and attitudes required in this innovative schooling system. SPARK Schools has implemented a range of human resource practices that show how an integrated, intensive, systemic approach to human resource policies and practices can help to optimize teachers' performance. The two leaders wonder whether their human resource practices are suitable for scaling up their social entrepreneurship organization from four schools to 60 in their effort to make a positive national impact on education. Margaret Sutherland is affiliated with Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Swot Analysis of "SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools" written by Margaret Sutherland includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Schools Spark facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Motivating people and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Schools Spark, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Schools Spark 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Schools Spark
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 Schools Spark
Strengths SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Schools Spark in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Schools Spark has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Schools Spark is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Schools Spark 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Schools Spark digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Schools Spark 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
– SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Schools Spark to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Schools Spark to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Schools Spark
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Schools Spark does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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.
High brand equity
– Schools Spark has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Schools Spark to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Schools Spark in the sector have low bargaining power. SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Schools Spark to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Schools Spark is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Schools Spark 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Schools Spark 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, 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
Schools Spark 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Schools Spark is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Schools Spark needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
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 Schools Spark supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Schools Spark vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, in the dynamic environment Schools Spark has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Schools Spark has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Schools Spark, firm in the HBR case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools HBR case study mentions - Schools Spark takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Schools Spark is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, it seems that the employees of Schools Spark 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 Schools Spark 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools | 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools are -
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. Schools Spark can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Schools Spark 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, Schools Spark is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Schools Spark 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, SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Schools Spark in the consumer business. Now Schools Spark can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Schools Spark can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Schools Spark operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Schools Spark 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
– Schools Spark 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Schools Spark to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Schools Spark 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Schools Spark 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.
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. Schools Spark can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Schools Spark 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. Schools Spark 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Schools Spark to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Threats SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools, Schools Spark 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Schools Spark
– 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 Schools Spark.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Schools Spark has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Schools Spark 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Schools Spark 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.
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. Schools Spark 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 Schools Spark in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Schools Spark 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Schools Spark 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools .
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. Schools Spark can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Schools Spark is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Schools Spark.
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 Schools Spark business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 SPARK Schools: Kindling Innovation in South Africa's Primary Schools 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 Schools Spark needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.