Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge
New York's public parks, brought to their magnificent peak by the legendary Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in the mid-20th-century heyday of direct government activism, were in disarray in a new era of public-sector austerity. As the City's hard-pressed government found itself short of money and manpower the parks-from the iconic Central Park to neighborhood playgrounds-grew dingy and dangerous. With few other options, park officials began experimenting in the 1980s with a new approach: Shifting responsibilities to the private sector. By 2003 this "partnership" strategy had become the linchpin of the park system. Private organizations-ranging from sophisticated organizations funded by New York's rich and famous to informal networks of neighborhood volunteers-had taken on major roles in maintaining, upgrading, and day-to-day management of the City's park system. Commission Adrian Benepe, though a veteran Parks Department employee deeply committed to public service, had contributed to the development of the partnership approach throughout his career. But as he was promoted to the top job, he faced the challenge of pursuing a complex mission when much of the essential capacity was subject to his influence but by no means under his control. Attending fundraisers, massaging donors' egos, and motivating volunteers-rather than the direct exercise of authority-are Benepe's most important management tools. HKS Case Number 1743.0
Swot Analysis of "Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge" written by John D. Donahue includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Parks Park facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Joint ventures, Leadership, Policy, Project management, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Parks Park, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Parks Park
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 Parks Park
Strengths Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Parks Park in Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Parks Park 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 Parks Park is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge - 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 recruit top talent
– Parks Park is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Parks Park 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Parks Park 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 Parks Park in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Parks Park has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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.
High brand equity
– Parks Park has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Parks Park to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Parks Park in the sector have low bargaining power. Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Parks Park to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Parks Park 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Parks Park to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Parks Park 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 Parks Park digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Parks Park 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Parks Park is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks Park 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge, it seems that the employees of Parks Park 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Parks Park 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. Parks Park 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Parks Park 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge, 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
Parks Park 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge, is just above the industry average. Parks Park 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks Park has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Parks Park is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge | 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Parks Park 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Parks Park can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Parks Park to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Parks Park can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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, Parks Park 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Parks Park in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Parks Park can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Parks Park can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Parks Park operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Parks Park is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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.
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. Parks Park can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Parks Park 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 Parks Park to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Parks Park 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Parks Park 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.
Threats Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Parks Park 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.
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. Parks Park can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Parks Park 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.
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. Parks Park 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 Parks Park.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Parks Park is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge, Parks Park 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Parks Park
– 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 Parks Park.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Parks Park with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Parks Park in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Parks Park 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks and Partnership in New York City (A): Adrian Benepe's Challenge 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 Parks Park needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
