Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities
Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior. The company lacked a clear strategy and suffered from organizational misalignment. Rick Woldenberg, the former CEO of Learning Resources, is called back to the helm after a four-year absence to address these issues, increase performance and set a direction for the company, all while remaining true to the values of his family's business.
Swot Analysis of "Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities" written by Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toy Learning facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Design, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational culture, Product development, Sales, Strategy execution and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toy Learning, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toy Learning 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toy Learning
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 Toy Learning
Strengths Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Toy Learning in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Toy Learning 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 Toy Learning in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Toy Learning 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.
High brand equity
– Toy Learning has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Toy Learning to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Toy Learning has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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.
Learning organization
- Toy Learning 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 Toy Learning is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Toy Learning 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Toy Learning has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Toy Learning 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Toy Learning is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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.
Organizational Resilience of Toy Learning
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toy Learning does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Toy Learning 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 Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Toy Learning digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Toy Learning 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.
Weaknesses Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Toy Learning is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Toy Learning needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Toy Learning to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toy Learning 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Toy Learning is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Toy Learning products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Toy Learning needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Toy Learning 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi suggests that, Toy Learning 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Toy Learning 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Toy Learning 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toy Learning has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities, is just above the industry average. Toy Learning 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities | 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Toy Learning 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Toy Learning 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Toy Learning has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toy Learning to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities case study. Toy Learning can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Toy Learning 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Toy Learning to increase its market reach. Toy Learning 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Toy Learning can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Toy Learning operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Toy Learning 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, Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Toy Learning 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.
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. Toy Learning can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Toy Learning can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Toy Learning 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Toy Learning 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 Toy Learning to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Toy Learning is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Toy Learning 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toy Learning 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Toy Learning 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.
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.
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. Toy Learning can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Toy Learning in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Toy Learning 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.
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 Toy Learning business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Toy Learning has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toy Learning 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.
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. Toy Learning 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Toy Learning 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.
Environmental challenges
– Toy Learning 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. Toy Learning can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities, Toy Learning 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toy Learning needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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