Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage
In 2016, the community engagement manager at Biblio Credit Union, a financial institution in Ontario, Canada, was concerned about rising social inequality. The company was respected in the community for its high business ethics and careful attention to corporate social responsibility. Although most of the company's employees were paid well, some employees received little more than the minimum wage. The community engagement manager wondered how to reduce that inequality. If the company were to give a raise to the lowest paid employees, all other employees would likely also expect a pay increase. Therefore, to bring all employees to what was considered to be a living wage, the company would need to adjust its pay scale. But would the credit union's board of directors support a sudden change in expenses? Would the increased expenses be offset by a corresponding increase in revenues? Would new customers pay more for the services of a living wage employer? The company needed to weigh the implementation of a living wage against the possibility of declining revenues, which could place the company in serious jeopardy. Kent Walker is affiliated with University of Windsor. Curtis Labutte is affiliated with University of Windsor.
Swot Analysis of "Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage" written by Kent Walker, Curtis Labutte includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wage Biblio facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Compensation, Ethics, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wage Biblio, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wage Biblio 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wage Biblio
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 Wage Biblio
Strengths Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wage Biblio in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wage Biblio is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Wage Biblio has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wage Biblio to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Wage Biblio 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 Kent Walker, Curtis Labutte 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wage Biblio is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Wage Biblio 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 Wage Biblio in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Wage Biblio is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Wage Biblio has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wage Biblio 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.
Learning organization
- Wage Biblio 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 Wage Biblio is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wage Biblio in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wage Biblio 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Wage Biblio
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wage Biblio does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wage Biblio is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage, is just above the industry average. Wage Biblio 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage HBR case study mentions - Wage Biblio 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wage Biblio 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wage Biblio is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Wage Biblio needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wage Biblio 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Wage Biblio has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kent Walker, Curtis Labutte suggests that, Wage Biblio 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Wage Biblio 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wage Biblio is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wage Biblio has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Wage Biblio even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Lack of clear differentiation of Wage Biblio products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Wage Biblio needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage | 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wage Biblio 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wage Biblio to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wage Biblio 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, Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Wage Biblio can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wage Biblio 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Wage Biblio 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.
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. Wage Biblio 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. Wage Biblio 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wage Biblio 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 Wage Biblio to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wage Biblio 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.
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 Wage Biblio 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wage Biblio has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wage Biblio to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage case study. Wage Biblio can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Wage Biblio can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wage Biblio 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wage Biblio can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wage Biblio operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wage Biblio 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.
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. Wage Biblio 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage, Wage Biblio 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wage Biblio is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Wage Biblio needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wage Biblio with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Wage Biblio in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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.
Increasing wage structure of Wage Biblio
– 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 Wage Biblio.
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 Wage Biblio 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.
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 Wage Biblio.
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. Wage Biblio can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Biblio Credit Union: Social Inequality and the Living Wage 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 Wage Biblio needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
