Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation
Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, wanted his organization to grow dramatically to reach thousands of poor and underserved children in Harlem. The agency ran a variety of successful social service programs throughout New York City that were separately funded and ran independently of each other. In 2000, Canada led the organization through an ambitious planning process, promising that within 10 years, its new integrated program would reach $46 million in revenues, serve 24,000 people, and expand to an area three times the size of its current zone. But the plan required the agency to change its management structure, measurement systems, and program goals drastically. How would the organization measure the impact of its work? Could such a system be measured? And how did the changes challenge the passionate directors who first established the component programs?
Swot Analysis of "Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation" written by Allen Grossman, Daniel F. Curran includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Harlem Zone facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Performance measurement, Social enterprise, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harlem Zone, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harlem Zone
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 Harlem Zone
Strengths Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harlem Zone in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harlem Zone to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harlem Zone to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Harlem Zone in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Harlem Zone is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Harlem Zone in the sector have low bargaining power. Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harlem Zone to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Harlem Zone 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 Allen Grossman, Daniel F. Curran 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.
Learning organization
- Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Zone is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Harlem Zone has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Harlem Zone to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Harlem Zone has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Zone in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Harlem Zone 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Harlem Zone is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Harlem Zone needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Harlem Zone to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation HBR case study mentions - Harlem Zone 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Harlem Zone products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harlem Zone needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Harlem Zone 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, it seems that the employees of Harlem Zone 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, is just above the industry average. Harlem Zone 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Harlem Zone 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. Harlem Zone 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Harlem Zone 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Harlem Zone is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation | 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Harlem Zone 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, Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Harlem Zone 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.
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 Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Zone 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.
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. Harlem Zone can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Harlem Zone 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Harlem Zone 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Harlem Zone to increase its market reach. Harlem Zone 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Harlem Zone is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Harlem Zone can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Harlem Zone can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Harlem Zone 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
– Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Harlem Zone to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Harlem Zone is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Harlem Zone 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.
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. Harlem Zone can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Harlem Zone 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harlem Zone 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Harlem Zone 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.
Increasing wage structure of Harlem Zone
– 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 Harlem Zone.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Harlem Zone with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Harlem Zone business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation .
Environmental challenges
– Harlem Zone 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. Harlem Zone can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Zone needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.