Case Study Description of Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers
Introduces Reverend Jeffrey Brown, one of the cofounders of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston, Mass. The Ten Point Coalition, a group of ministers that worked to change the dynamics between the Boston Police Department and the kids on the street, was instrumental in reducing the rate of youth violence in Boston. Describes the unique history of Boston and how the coalition came to be successful in Boston. Wrestles with the question of whether or not the success can be replicated in other cities around the world.
Swot Analysis of "Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers" written by Alexis Gendron, Kathleen L. McGinn includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Boston Coalition facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Influence, Leadership, Social enterprise and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Boston Coalition, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Boston Coalition 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Boston Coalition
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 Boston Coalition
Strengths Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Boston Coalition in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Boston Coalition is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Boston Coalition 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 Boston Coalition is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Boston Coalition 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 Alexis Gendron, Kathleen L. McGinn 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Boston Coalition 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 Boston Coalition in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Boston Coalition 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers - 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
– Boston Coalition has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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.
High brand equity
– Boston Coalition has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Boston Coalition to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Boston Coalition 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Boston Coalition digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Boston Coalition 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Boston Coalition 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Boston Coalition is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Boston Coalition 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. Boston Coalition 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, Boston Coalition 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers, it seems that the employees of Boston Coalition 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Boston Coalition 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Boston Coalition is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Boston Coalition has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Boston Coalition is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Boston Coalition needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Boston Coalition to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Boston Coalition 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Boston Coalition is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Boston Coalition 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Boston Coalition, firm in the HBR case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers | 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Boston Coalition has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Boston Coalition to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers case study. Boston Coalition can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Boston Coalition 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Boston Coalition 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Boston Coalition 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 Boston Coalition to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Boston Coalition 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.
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. Boston Coalition 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. Boston Coalition 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Boston Coalition 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. Boston Coalition can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Boston Coalition 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Boston Coalition to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Boston Coalition 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.
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. Boston Coalition can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Boston Coalition 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, Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Boston Coalition can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers, Boston Coalition 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Boston Coalition has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Boston Coalition 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Boston Coalition 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 Boston Coalition business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Boston Coalition 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Boston Coalition
– 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 Boston Coalition.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Boston Coalition is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Boston Coalition 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. Boston Coalition can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Boston Coalition 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. Boston Coalition can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Boston Coalition needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers 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 Boston Coalition needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
