The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder
Paul Hamann was senior vice president of The Night Ministry, a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization. In October 2003 he received a phone call from the wife of the Reverend Tom Behrens, the founding president and the public face of the organization. She told Hamann that Behrens had suffered a massive stroke and that doctors were unsure of his prognosis. Behrens had been walking the streets of run-down Chicago neighborhoods since 1976, looking for people in despair, listening to their needs, and offering them a helping hand and a consoling presence. In the intervening twenty-seven years, he had built The Night Ministry into a well-known organization that helped thousands of adults and youth every year. No succession plan, if one existed, had ever been conveyed to senior management. Now Hamann was unsure when or even if Behrens would be able to work again. If Behrens returned to work, would he be able to continue to lead the organization? If not, who would lead The Night Ministry going forward, even if it were just for the near term, and who would make that decision? How would the community and major donors react to a new leader?
Swot Analysis of "The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder" written by Anne Cohn Donnelly, Sara Lo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Behrens Hamann facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Social enterprise, Succession planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices,
geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Behrens Hamann, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Behrens Hamann 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Behrens Hamann
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 Behrens Hamann
Strengths The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Behrens Hamann in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Behrens Hamann 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 Anne Cohn Donnelly, Sara Lo 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Behrens Hamann is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Behrens Hamann in the sector have low bargaining power. The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Behrens Hamann to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Behrens Hamann 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Behrens Hamann 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Behrens Hamann has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Behrens Hamann 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Behrens Hamann 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 Behrens Hamann in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Behrens Hamann 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.
High brand equity
– Behrens Hamann has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Behrens Hamann to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Behrens Hamann 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 Behrens Hamann is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Behrens Hamann 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Behrens Hamann is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder, is just above the industry average. Behrens Hamann 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Behrens Hamann 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Behrens Hamann 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. Behrens Hamann 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.
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 Behrens Hamann supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Behrens Hamann vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Behrens Hamann 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder, in the dynamic environment Behrens Hamann has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Behrens Hamann has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Behrens Hamann 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Behrens Hamann has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Behrens Hamann products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Behrens Hamann needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 Behrens Hamann 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder | 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder are -
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. Behrens Hamann 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
– Behrens Hamann 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Behrens Hamann to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Behrens Hamann can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Behrens Hamann 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 Behrens Hamann to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Behrens Hamann can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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.
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 Behrens Hamann in the consumer business. Now Behrens Hamann can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Behrens Hamann is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Behrens Hamann 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, Behrens Hamann 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Behrens Hamann has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Behrens Hamann to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder case study. Behrens Hamann can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Behrens Hamann 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Behrens Hamann to increase its market reach. Behrens Hamann 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Behrens Hamann 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.
Threats The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder are -
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.
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. Behrens Hamann 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 Behrens Hamann 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Behrens Hamann 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Behrens Hamann 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Behrens Hamann 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.
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 Behrens Hamann business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Behrens Hamann is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Behrens Hamann in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder, Behrens Hamann 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Behrens Hamann 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. Behrens Hamann can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Behrens Hamann has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Behrens Hamann 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Behrens Hamann 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 The Night Ministry: Facing the Loss of a Founder 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 Behrens Hamann needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
