Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (BFAM) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Personal Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Personal Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
Strengths of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc are -
Analytics focus
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 United States 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has one of the best training and development program in Services industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Ability to lead change in Personal Services
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Personal Services industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc staying ahead in the Personal Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Personal Services industry
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Personal Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Personal Services industry
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is present in almost all the verticals within the Personal Services industry. This has provided Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Weaknesses of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Personal Services industry, but Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to focus more on services in the Personal Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Personal Services industry, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 United States, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Skills based hiring in Personal Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Personal Services industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Personal Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc, in the dynamic environment of Personal Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Personal Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
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. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Personal Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Personal Services industry. This can help Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc products in the Personal Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc to increase its market reach. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Threats Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc are -
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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.
Regulatory challenges
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Personal Services industry are lowering. It can presents Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Personal Services sector.
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. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc is facing in Personal Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc in Personal Services industry. The Personal Services industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc
– 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.
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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Personal Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc prominent markets.
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. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc 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 Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.