A Case Study on SWOT Analysis. IDP Action Plan Preparation for JCEM

Transcription

1 A Case Study on SWOT Analysis & IDP Action Plan Preparation for JCEM (name of client is masked) June-August 2010

2 Background Strategic planning is a process in which future goals are determined together with the stakeholders and both responsibilities and resources are allocated in accordance with these future goals. It is a process between the point an institution stands presently and the point it aims to reach in a given period of time. The concept of strategic planning is closely related with the concept of vision. In the process of strategic planning, some of the fundamental questions that would be addressed are Where are we now?, How can we reach our desired goal? And How can we evaluate our success? As a medium of administration, SWOT analysis is used in making a plan, defining a problem and also identifying a solution for it, making a strategy and giving an analytic decision. It is a tool for auditing an institution and its environment. It is a first stage of planning which helps to focus on key issues. The role of SWOT analysis is to do a self-diagnosis and separate it into internal and external issues. SWOT analysis determines if the information indicates something that will assist the institution in accomplishing its objectives or if it indicates an obstacle that must be removed or minimized to achieve desired results. As part of the TEQIP II preparation, Ministry of HRD mandates each participating institution to perform a thorough SWOT analysis on the institution and its constituent departments. Having seen success in TEQIP I, JCEM now evinces interest in further participating in TEQIP II to Scale up the quality and quantity of intake into its PG and PhD programs. JCEM (a premier Institute) employed the services of ScaleneWorks to assist them in the SWOT analysis and subsequent Institutional Development Proposal preparations. Mr. Sanjay Shelvankar, CEO ScaleneWorks People Solutions LLP, a Bangalore based Human Capital Management consulting organization that routinely helps large organizations with Strategic Visioning, SWOT analysis etc., spearheaded the efforts. ScaleneWorks carried out analysis using SWOT framework to identify Strengths, Weaknesses and to examine the Opportunities and Threats faced, thereby focusing activities into areas where JCEM was traditionally strong, and where the greatest opportunities lie. Based upon the SWOT analysis, ScaleneWorks assisted JCEM to prepare an Institutional Development Proposal (IDP) in the prescribed format that seeks to strengthen JCEM and increase employability of graduates. The entire TEQIP IDP effort was completed in a 2-3 month period with days of effort behind it. The details of the SWOT Analysis are as below: JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 2 of 8

3 SWOT Analysis - Methodology At JCEM a combination of SWOT Analysis and TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix were put to use. The entire Institution was divided into homogeneous groups representing their respective departments and line functions. There were totally 19 groups that were taken through the day-long SWOT and TOWS facilitated workshop and we had 3 groups on each day two departments and one Basic Science department. One day was exclusively for non-teaching and Support staff. The following were the groups: Civil Electrical Computer Science Information Science & Mechanical Electronics & Communication Environmental Bio-Technology Industrial Production Instrumentation Polymer Science & Technology Construction Technology Physics Chemistry Mathematics Admin & Accounts Library Technical Staff Students Alumni Every day the aim of each departmental group was to identify the key internal factors (Strength & Weakness) and external factors (Opportunity & Threats) that are important to achieve objectives of Sub-Component 1.2 in the TEQIP document. The following approach was followed: First, the groups were assembled in an audio-visual room and briefed about TEQIP-II in general and sub-component 1.2 in particular, its associated deliverables and the Scoring methodology that would ensure JCEM getting funding under TEQIP-II. The group then was told about Institutional SWOT analysis being one of the eligibility criteria task for TEQIP-II. The broad focus areas that they had to deliberate on in the SWOT workshop were as below: Scaling up research and innovation Scaling up Ph.D. enrolment Scaling up enrolment into Master programs Research collaborative activities with institution at National and international level Improving interaction with industry Improving faculty qualifications The group then discussed, distilled their thoughts and the group coordinators collected SWOT inputs on each focus area from every member of the group. Once the Departmental SWOT was prepared, the groups were introduced to TOWS Alternatives Matrix. This was done to ensure a Matching and Converting strategy is used. Matching was used to find competitive advantages by pairing the Strengths to Opportunities. Converting is to apply conversion strategies to convert Weaknesses or Threats into Strengths or Opportunities. In this way the groups were asked to pair and arrive at Strength-Opportunity, Strength-Threat, Weakness- Opportunity and Weakness-Threat matrices for their respective departments. JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 3 of 8

4 All this departmental SWOT inputs were then collated into one master SWOT sheet for JCEM and all the departmental TOWS inputs were collated into one master TOWS at the Institutional level. During the collation process, care was taken not to eliminate any input too quickly. The importance of individual SWOT/TOWS input will be revealed by the value of the strategies it generates. A SWOT/TOWS item that produces valuable strategies got grouped as important. Those SWOT/TOWS inputs that generated mediocre strategies were parked. Once this task was completed, the core-group team chaired by the Principal and external SWOT experts further cleaned the SWOT and TOWS inputs, normalized them and readied the Action Items for the Institutional Development Plan. To prioritize the action items into short-term, mid-term and long-term goals, two indices Business Value and Implementation Complexity were used. A score of 1 to 5, where 1 represented low Business Value and 5 meant highest business value was used. Similarly a score of 1 represented low Implementation Complexity and a score of 5 would mean that the action item in question had a very high Implementation Complexity. After all action items were scored in this manner, the list was sorted on High Business Value and Low Implementation Complexity and the ones that were in this category were assigned to Short-Term Goals and progressively lower business value and higher implementation complexity were assigned into Mid and Long-term goals. Documentation was done and traceability tables that could trace the action item to the TOWS inputs and then to the individual departmental SWOT analysis input were prepared. ScaleneWorks thereafter assisted the core-team to plan for budgets, prepare detailed action plans as required by the PIP document. SWOT and TOWS Action Items Categories To normalize all the SWOT and TOWS inputs and Action Items the Core Group headed by JCEM s Principal came out with the following Categories. This helped further categorization of the Action Items and these were then easily matched with the Key Activities. Major Academic Academic Reforms Research Internal Revenue Generation (IRG) Industry-Institute & Institute- Institute Partnership Major Management Student Management Faculty & Staff Management Training (Faculty and Staff) Infrastructure Institutional Reforms Typical Action Items Curriculum up-gradation; Teaching-Learning Process; Effective Student Evaluation and Academic support to Weak Students Support structure to foster Individual, Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Research; Incentive Support, Travel Grants, Recognition and Awards Consulting, Patents, Funding, Sponsored Research MOU support, Joint research programs Typical Action Items Automation and digitization of Student records, Guidance and counseling; Training and Placement Recruitment/Mentoring, Performance Appraisal Soft Skills, Pedagogy Training, Domain Training Buildings, Equipment, Books & journals etc. Policy support JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 4 of 8

5 SWOT Analysis - Data and Linkages The flowchart below, visually depicts the journey JCEM took to arrive at a highly-refined action plan and strategy to utilize the funds from TEQIP II. 19 distinct groups individual stakeholders 8 hours SWOT workshop each person hour effort 692 Consolidated SWOT Inputs (Strengths - 250, Weakness - 208, Opportunities - 158, Threats - 76) 1st Iteration clean-up to eliminate inter-group duplicate inputs (Strengths - 118, Weakness - 191, Opportunities - 145, Threats - 56) 2nd Iteration clean-up using SWOT Categorization to eliminate redundant inputs (Strengths - 55, Weakness - 53, Opportunities - 51, Threats - 16) TOWS Alternatives Exercise on 2nd Iteration inputs resulted in 131 Action Items (Strengths-Opportunities - 66; Strengths-Threats - 13; Weakness-Opportunities - 42; Weakness-Threats - 10) TOWS categorization exercise to match IDP Key Activities List 94 final Action Items were derived Key Project Activities of TEQIP II were derived and associated budget and implementation plans were prepared to seek funding JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 5 of 8

6 Business Value Implementation Complexity Below table lists few of the Final Action Items that JCEM will seek to implement and to which the TEQIP program will provide funding: 1 Low-5 High Action Item # SWOT Final Action Item IDP Key Activities Phase 1 Reforms 2 Reforms 3 Reforms 4 Reforms 5 Infrastructure 6 Policy 7 Research 8 Research Continue to encourage UG students to take up industry and govt sponsored projects and utilize schemes such as "Travel Grants for Students". Expand existing industry internships for UG students to all branches Conducting a summer programme on Innovative Projects Continue to leverage industry experts in board of studies and faculty experience to attract and motivate greater number of UG students towards R&D across all branches Offer Inter-disciplinary electives both at UG and PG level and encourage Inter-disciplinary project work. Also the industrial training can be inter-disciplinary in nature. Encourage PG scholars to choose multi-disciplinary research AIO - Train faculty in Web-search, literature search, bibliography etc. Approach state govt./mhrd to provide QIP facilities to library and office staff for degree up-gradation Encourage research groups to contribute to Technology / Research based international blogs Use TNA and accordingly depute the staff and faculty for appropriate need based training, conferences, seminars in both India and abroad. Creating interest for research in UG students Creating interest for research in UG students Creating interest for research in UG students Creating interest for research in UG students 4 1 Immediate 5 3 Immediate 4 3 Long-Term 4 2 Mid-Term Faculty and Staff Development 5 1 Mid-Term Faculty and Staff Development 5 3 Mid-Term Faculty and Staff Development 4 1 Immediate Faculty and Staff Development 4 2 Immediate JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 6 of 8

7 Business Value Implementation Complexity 1 Low-5 High Action Item # SWOT Final Action Item IDP Key Activities Phase 9 Research Build IPR awareness training and support for patent filing process to all faculty and select students Faculty and Staff Development 4 2 Mid-Term 10 Training AIO: Exhaustive TNA is prepared for TEQIP phase II funding in which training for faculty and staff with regard to knowledge up-gradation, soft skill enhancement, e-governance utilization, office management procedure, developing IT skills, patenting Faculty and Staff Development 5 2 Immediate and personality development. An arrangement will be made to use IRG funds for this purpose after TEQIP II. 12 Training Organize training programs /workshops in the area of personality development, yoga Faculty and Staff Development 4 2 Mid-Term 13 Training Train Faculty and staff in IT skills. Faculty and Staff Development 4 1 Mid-Term 14 Training Train Faculty and staff through workshops and seminars in "Change Management". Faculty and Staff Development 4 2 Mid-Term Train and mentor faculty members from experts available from top consultancy firms, IISc and IITs on approach of highend Consulting. 15 IRG Encourage faculty to undertake high-end consulting assignments from industry and govt., to improve IRG. Document case-studies of consultancy experiences for classroom use. Involve students in problem-solving associated with such consultancy projects Faculty and Staff Development; 4 3 Long-Term JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 7 of 8

8 Business Value Implementation Complexity 1 Low-5 High Action Item # SWOT Final Action Item IDP Key Activities Phase 16 Inst. Reforms 17 Inst. Reforms 18 Inst. Reforms 19 Partnership 20 Partnership Use management support, TEQIP & other grants to: 1) Increase the conferences and workshops organized by JCEM 2) Provide incentives to Faculty members that contribute towards Learner-Centric curriculum development Introducing innovations in UG programmes of JCEM by organizing summer school/internship programs/2 credit add-on courses To undertake these activities, JCEM will establish an Office of the Dean, CCRCOP (Centre for Consultancy, Research, Community Outreach and Partnership). The existing IIIC will be part of CCRCOP. Community Outreach includes Continuing Education, JCEM-Alumni Relations and Technology & Knowledge Transfer to Rural Areas. Partnership covers JCEM- Industry and JCEM-Other Institutions Partnerships. Incentivize faculty to attend short term (about 3 months)industrial training Design a well defined and transparent policy for industryinteraction and Networking with other Institutes. Awareness on this policy be made available to all faculty members. 5 3 Immediate 5 4 Immediate 5 3 Mid-Term 5 1 Immediate 5 2 Mid-Term JCEM TEQIP II SWOT Analysis Report Page 8 of 8