Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods
Although women make up nearly half of the workforce in the United States, the number of women who hold senior management positions in large U.S. firms continues to be disproportionately low. This fact raises concerns about individual fairness and equality of opportunity. Herein, we demonstrate that the use of strong mentoring programs holds great promise as a way to increase the number of women in senior management roles. An extensive study supports the mentoring program recommendation, as do examples of foreign firms which far more readily employ women in executive positions than do U.S. firms.
Authors :: Terry Dworkin, Maurer Virginia, Cindy A Schipani
Swot Analysis of "Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods" written by Terry Dworkin, Maurer Virginia, Cindy A Schipani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Women Mentoring facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, 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,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Women Mentoring, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Women Mentoring 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Women Mentoring
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 Women Mentoring
Strengths Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Women Mentoring in Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Women Mentoring is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Women Mentoring 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 Women Mentoring digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Women Mentoring 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.
Training and development
– Women Mentoring has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Women Mentoring has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Women Mentoring 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Women Mentoring in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Women Mentoring to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Women Mentoring to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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
– Women Mentoring 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Women Mentoring has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Women Mentoring to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Women Mentoring 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 Terry Dworkin, Maurer Virginia, Cindy A Schipani 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Women Mentoring in the sector have low bargaining power. Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Women Mentoring to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods are -
Need for greater diversity
– Women Mentoring 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Women Mentoring supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Women Mentoring vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Women Mentoring is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Women Mentoring needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Women Mentoring to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Women Mentoring is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Women Mentoring, firm in the HBR case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Women Mentoring 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. Women Mentoring 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, Women Mentoring 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods, it seems that the employees of Women Mentoring 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Women Mentoring is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Women Mentoring 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.
Opportunities Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods | 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods are -
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 Women Mentoring 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Women Mentoring has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Women Mentoring to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods case study. Women Mentoring can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Women Mentoring can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Women Mentoring 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.
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. Women Mentoring can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Women Mentoring 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Women Mentoring to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Women Mentoring can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Women Mentoring 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Women Mentoring is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Women Mentoring in the consumer business. Now Women Mentoring can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Women Mentoring can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Women Mentoring operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Women Mentoring 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Women Mentoring 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.
Threats Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Women Mentoring 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Women Mentoring is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Women Mentoring has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Women Mentoring 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods, Women Mentoring 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 .
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. Women Mentoring can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Women Mentoring 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Women Mentoring 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.
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. Women Mentoring 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 Women Mentoring 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.
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 Women Mentoring 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 Women Mentoring with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Women Mentoring.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Career Mentoring for Women: New Horizons/Expanded Methods 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 Women Mentoring needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.