Swot Analysis of "German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis" written by Rebecca Henderson, Tony He includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Syrian Refugee facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Syrian Refugee, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Syrian Refugee 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Syrian Refugee
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 Syrian Refugee
Strengths German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Syrian Refugee in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Syrian Refugee has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Syrian Refugee 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 Syrian Refugee
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Syrian Refugee does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Syrian Refugee 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Syrian Refugee to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Syrian Refugee to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Syrian Refugee digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Syrian Refugee 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Syrian Refugee is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Syrian Refugee 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 Syrian Refugee in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Syrian Refugee in the sector have low bargaining power. German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Syrian Refugee to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Syrian Refugee has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Syrian Refugee 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Syrian Refugee is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis HBR case study mentions - Syrian Refugee 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis, 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
Syrian Refugee 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Syrian Refugee is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Syrian Refugee has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Syrian Refugee 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Syrian Refugee, firm in the HBR case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Syrian Refugee is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Syrian Refugee needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Syrian Refugee to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis, it seems that the employees of Syrian Refugee 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Syrian Refugee is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 Syrian Refugee 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis | 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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. Syrian Refugee can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Syrian Refugee 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Syrian Refugee 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Syrian Refugee 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Syrian Refugee can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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, Syrian Refugee 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Syrian Refugee 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Syrian Refugee to increase its market reach. Syrian Refugee 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Syrian Refugee 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.
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. Syrian Refugee can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Syrian Refugee can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Syrian Refugee operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Syrian Refugee has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Syrian Refugee to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis case study. Syrian Refugee can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Syrian Refugee 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, German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis are -
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.
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. Syrian Refugee 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Syrian Refugee 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis .
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. Syrian Refugee can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Syrian Refugee 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.
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 Syrian Refugee
– 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 Syrian Refugee.
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 Syrian Refugee business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Syrian Refugee 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Syrian Refugee is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Syrian Refugee 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Syrian Refugee with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Syrian Refugee.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 German Business and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 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 Syrian Refugee needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
