Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges
The Abraham Path board reviews the last five years and seeks to frame and act on its major strategic, negotiating, and operational challenges going forward. The Abraham Path Initiative seeks to revitalize a route of Middle East cultural tourism following Abraham's path 4000 years ago. It begins in the ancient ruins of Harran, in modern-day Turkey, where Abraham first heard the call to "go forth." It passes through some of the world's most revered cultural, historical, and holy sites, ending in the city of Hebron/AI-Khalil at the tomb of Abraham. With Abraham as a venerated patriarchal figure for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity-monotheistic religions whose adherents have so often clashed-the potential unifying power of this conception has attracted a remarkable range of supporters from around the world as well as considerable media interest. Having lengthened the walkable part of the Path from 300km five years ago to over 2000km today, with thousands of people having walked parts of the Path, and having been awarded a major World Bank grant, several challenges nonetheless remain including regional war and turmoil, sustainable funding, tensions over the Path's activities in Israel, and possible next steps for the initiative.
Swot Analysis of "Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges" written by James K. Sebenius includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Abraham Path facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Abraham Path, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Abraham Path
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 Abraham Path
Strengths Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Abraham Path in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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
– Abraham Path 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 Abraham Path in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Abraham Path has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Abraham Path in the sector have low bargaining power. Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Abraham Path to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Abraham Path is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Abraham Path 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 James K. Sebenius 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
– Abraham Path is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Abraham Path is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Abraham Path in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Abraham Path is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Abraham Path digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges, it seems that the employees of Abraham Path don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James K. Sebenius suggests that, Abraham Path 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges, in the dynamic environment Abraham Path has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Abraham Path has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Abraham Path 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Abraham Path, firm in the HBR case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Abraham Path is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Abraham Path 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Abraham Path is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Abraham Path needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Abraham Path has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges HBR case study mentions - Abraham Path 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.
Opportunities Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges | 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges are -
Manufacturing automation
– Abraham Path 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Abraham Path can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Abraham Path operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Abraham Path to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Abraham Path 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Abraham Path can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Abraham Path to increase its market reach. Abraham Path 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Abraham Path can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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.
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 Abraham Path 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Abraham Path 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 Abraham Path to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Abraham Path 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, Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Abraham Path 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.
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. Abraham Path can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Abraham Path is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges are -
Regulatory challenges
– Abraham Path 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Abraham Path 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Abraham Path has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Abraham Path 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Abraham Path with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Abraham Path 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. Abraham Path can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Abraham Path needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Abraham Path
– 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 Abraham Path.
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. Abraham Path can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Abraham Path 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Abraham Path 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.
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.
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 Abraham Path business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Negotiating the Path of Abraham, 2015 Progress and Challenges 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 Abraham Path needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
