Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A)
It is May 2007, and Jose Rodriguez has just won the election for mayor of Santa Barbara de Tapirin, a small town located at an oil area in Venezuela's mid-eastern region. Santa Barbara de Tapir'n is the capital of a scarcely populated municipality with abundant fiscal revenues coming largely from transfers made by the national government to communities in oil areas. The town is nevertheless a quiet, isolated place, with little economic activity, high unemployment, and unreliable public services with incomplete coverage. Despite this, in recent years, a large number of low-income immigrants have arrived in town, attracted by the oil economy, (illegally) seizing lands in Santa Barbara's outskirts. Jose Rodriguez wants to turn the town around, leading it out of its economic stagnation and guiding it to a path of greater prosperity and development. To this end, he has asked a team of advisors to help him gain a better understanding of the causes underlying Santa Barbara's stagnation and to formulate impactful solutions. This case describes a complex scenario so that students can explore a town's issues as viewed from the vantage point of a mayor, using standard techniques to analyze public policies. It also provides information that can be used in social investment project elaboration trials. IESA's case collection
Swot Analysis of "Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A)" written by Josefina F. Bruni-Celli includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Santa Town facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economic development, Policy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Santa Town, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Santa Town
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 Santa Town
Strengths Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Santa Town in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Santa Town in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Santa Town in the sector have low bargaining power. Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Santa Town to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Santa Town 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 Santa Town in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Santa Town
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Santa Town does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Santa Town is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Santa Town 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.
High brand equity
– Santa Town has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Santa Town to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Santa Town 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 Santa Town is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Santa Town digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A), in the dynamic environment Santa Town has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Santa Town 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
– Santa Town 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Santa Town products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Santa Town needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Josefina F. Bruni-Celli suggests that, Santa Town 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) HBR case study mentions - Santa Town 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Santa Town, firm in the HBR case study Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Santa Town has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Santa Town 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Santa Town 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Santa Town 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 - Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A), it seems that the employees of Santa Town 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.
Opportunities Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) | 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Santa Town to increase its market reach. Santa Town 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Santa Town 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Santa Town in the consumer business. Now Santa Town can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Santa Town to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Santa Town to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Santa Town has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Santa Town to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) case study. Santa Town can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Santa Town can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Santa Town can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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.
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. Santa Town 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. Santa Town 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Santa Town 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Santa Town 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Santa Town to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Santa Town can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) are -
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. Santa Town needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Santa Town.
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. Santa Town 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, Santa Town 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) .
Increasing wage structure of Santa Town
– 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 Santa Town.
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. Santa Town 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.
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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Santa Town 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Santa Town 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Santa Town 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Santa Town 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Santa Town with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Local Development Policy for Santa Barbara de Tapirin (A) 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 Santa Town needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
