How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility
Grade inflation is rampant across universities, colleges, academic majors, and certainly in American business schools. Extensive evidence shows that the distribution of college GPAs is skewed sharply toward high grades. Consequently, GPAs often poorly convey students' relative academic achievement, sending a muddled message to prospective employers. This article explores the causes and consequences of grade inflation. It concludes with six recommendations for employers who want to encourage college administrators to control collegiate grade inflation, thereby strengthening the accuracy and value of a GPA in the processes of applicant evaluation and job placement.
Swot Analysis of "How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility" written by John A. Pearce includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gpas Grade facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Education and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gpas Grade, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gpas Grade
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 Gpas Grade
Strengths How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gpas Grade in How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Gpas Grade
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Gpas Grade 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 Gpas Grade in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gpas Grade to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gpas Grade to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gpas Grade has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gpas Grade 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gpas Grade in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gpas Grade are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gpas Grade is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Gpas Grade is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Gpas Grade has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gpas Grade to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Gpas Grade 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Gpas Grade 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gpas Grade 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gpas Grade 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility, in the dynamic environment Gpas Grade has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gpas Grade has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility, 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 Gpas Grade supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gpas Grade vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gpas Grade is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Gpas Grade, firm in the HBR case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gpas Grade 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. Gpas Grade 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gpas Grade is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility | 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gpas Grade 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, How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Gpas Grade can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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.
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. Gpas Grade can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Gpas Grade 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Gpas Grade 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gpas Grade is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gpas Grade 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.
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. Gpas Grade 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. Gpas Grade 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gpas Grade to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gpas Grade has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gpas Grade to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility case study. Gpas Grade can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gpas Grade 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Gpas Grade 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Gpas Grade 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.
Threats How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility are -
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. Gpas Grade can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Gpas Grade 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gpas Grade 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.
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. Gpas Grade needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility, Gpas Grade 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 .
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 Gpas Grade in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gpas Grade is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gpas Grade high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gpas Grade has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gpas Grade 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 wage structure of Gpas Grade
– 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 Gpas Grade.
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 Gpas Grade.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gpas Grade 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gpas Grade 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 How Employers Can Stanch the Hemorrhaging of Collegiate GPA Credibility 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 Gpas Grade needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.