SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for MindChamps PreSchool (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , MindChamps PreSchool is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, 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, geopolitical disruptions,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MindChamps PreSchool
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that MindChamps PreSchool can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the MindChamps PreSchool, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of MindChamps PreSchool
2. Improving business portfolio management of MindChamps PreSchool
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Personal Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of MindChamps PreSchool
Strengths of MindChamps PreSchool | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of MindChamps PreSchool are -
Ability to lead change in Personal Services
– MindChamps PreSchool is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Personal Services industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled MindChamps PreSchool in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– MindChamps PreSchool has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled MindChamps PreSchool to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Personal Services industry
– MindChamps PreSchool has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled MindChamps PreSchool to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Personal Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped MindChamps PreSchool to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Organizational Resilience of MindChamps PreSchool
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing MindChamps PreSchool does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Personal Services industry
– MindChamps PreSchool is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry. The technology infrastructure of Singapore is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of MindChamps PreSchool comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Personal Services 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
– MindChamps PreSchool is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in Singapore. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Singapore. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– MindChamps PreSchool has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Personal Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of MindChamps PreSchool have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of MindChamps PreSchool in Personal Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– MindChamps PreSchool is one of the most innovative firm in Personal Services sector.
Weaknesses of MindChamps PreSchool | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MindChamps PreSchool are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of MindChamps PreSchool is just above the Personal Services industry average. It 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, MindChamps PreSchool has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Personal Services industry over the last five years. MindChamps PreSchool 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, MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry using digital technology.
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 MindChamps PreSchool supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, MindChamps PreSchool is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left MindChamps PreSchool vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Personal Services industry, MindChamps PreSchool needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Personal Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of MindChamps PreSchool is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Personal Services industry, but MindChamps PreSchool needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help MindChamps PreSchool to focus more on services in the Personal Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on MindChamps PreSchool ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of MindChamps PreSchool still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Personal Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though MindChamps PreSchool has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, MindChamps PreSchool needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
MindChamps PreSchool Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool 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.
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. MindChamps PreSchool can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects MindChamps PreSchool can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, MindChamps PreSchool is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. MindChamps PreSchool can utilize new technology in the field of Personal Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, MindChamps PreSchool can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that MindChamps PreSchool operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Personal Services sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Personal Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. MindChamps PreSchool 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. MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– MindChamps PreSchool has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Personal Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled MindChamps PreSchool to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help MindChamps PreSchool to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of MindChamps PreSchool has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Personal Services industry. This can help MindChamps PreSchool to build a more holistic ecosystem for MindChamps PreSchool products in the Personal Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– MindChamps PreSchool can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Personal Services industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– MindChamps PreSchool can develop new processes and procedures in Personal Services 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help MindChamps PreSchool to increase its market reach. MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Threats MindChamps PreSchool External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of MindChamps PreSchool are -
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 MindChamps PreSchool in the Personal Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Personal Services industry are lowering. It can presents MindChamps PreSchool with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Personal Services 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 MindChamps PreSchool.
Environmental challenges
– MindChamps PreSchool 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. MindChamps PreSchool can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Personal Services industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– MindChamps PreSchool 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, MindChamps PreSchool may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Personal Services sector.
Regulatory challenges
– MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Personal Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. MindChamps PreSchool can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– MindChamps PreSchool has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Personal Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, MindChamps PreSchool needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Personal Services 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on MindChamps PreSchool 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 Personal Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of MindChamps PreSchool
– 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 MindChamps PreSchool.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MindChamps PreSchool Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool 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 MindChamps PreSchool needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
