The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence
Frank Barnaba has rescued people from human trafficking situations for decades and received an award from President Reagan for his work. Now retired, he has started the Barnaba Institute to continue his humanitarian mission. As its president, Frank is involved in providing direct services to victims of sex trafficking, often in dangerous urban environments in the Northeast. The Barnaba Institute not only provides necessities, such as clothing, to victims, but also education and training about the scope and dangers of human trafficking to other organizations and the general public. Contacts with many organizations, such as Covenant House, the largest nonprofit child services agency in the U.S., have provided a forum for Frank's outreach and rescue techniques. Barnaba Institute's executive director, however, is concerned not only with accomplishing the organization's mission, but with finding adequate resources. Having used up the "seed" funding during its first three years, the executive director must now review its choices for continuing into the future.
Swot Analysis of "The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence" written by Marie Rock, John A. Seeger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Barnaba Trafficking facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social responsibility, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Barnaba Trafficking, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Barnaba Trafficking
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 Barnaba Trafficking
Strengths The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Barnaba Trafficking in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Barnaba Trafficking are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Barnaba Trafficking is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Barnaba Trafficking to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Barnaba Trafficking to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Barnaba Trafficking is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Barnaba Trafficking in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Barnaba Trafficking in the sector have low bargaining power. The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Barnaba Trafficking to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Barnaba Trafficking has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Barnaba Trafficking is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Barnaba Trafficking
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Barnaba Trafficking does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Barnaba Trafficking has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Weaknesses The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence, 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 Barnaba Trafficking 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence HBR case study mentions - Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence, is just above the industry average. Barnaba Trafficking needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence, in the dynamic environment Barnaba Trafficking has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Barnaba Trafficking has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Barnaba Trafficking 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. Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Barnaba Trafficking is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Barnaba Trafficking 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Marie Rock, John A. Seeger suggests that, Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence, it seems that the employees of Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence | 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Barnaba Trafficking to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Barnaba Trafficking can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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. Barnaba Trafficking 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. Barnaba Trafficking 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.
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. Barnaba Trafficking can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Barnaba Trafficking is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Barnaba Trafficking 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 Barnaba Trafficking to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Barnaba Trafficking to increase its market reach. Barnaba Trafficking 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.
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 Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence are -
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 Barnaba Trafficking in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence, Barnaba Trafficking 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Barnaba Trafficking with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Barnaba Trafficking can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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
– Barnaba Trafficking 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. Barnaba Trafficking 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. Barnaba Trafficking needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Barnaba Trafficking 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Barnaba Trafficking 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 The Barnaba Institute: Fighting Human Trafficking and Building a Presence 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 Barnaba Trafficking needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
