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 increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, 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 -
Training and development
– Harlem Zone has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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.
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.
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.
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Harlem Zone 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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Harlem Zone is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation 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 Harlem Zone
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Harlem Zone does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Harlem Zone 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.
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.
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 -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Harlem Zone 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Harlem Zone has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Harlem Zone 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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, in the dynamic environment Harlem Zone has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harlem Zone has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Allen Grossman, Daniel F. Curran suggests that, Harlem Zone 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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Harlem Zone can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
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. Harlem Zone 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. Harlem Zone 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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Harlem Zone 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 Harlem Zone to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Harlem Zone can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Harlem Zone operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 -
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Harlem Children's Zone: Driving Performance with Measurement and Evaluation, Harlem Zone 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 .
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.
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.
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.
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 Harlem Zone in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Harlem Zone 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.
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.
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. Harlem Zone needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Harlem Zone has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Harlem Zone needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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.
