"Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549
On January 15, 2009, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese. The geese were then sucked into the plane's twin engines, causing total engine failure and the loss of power. Case A of this three-part series recounts how over the following four minutes, Flight 1549's Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles grappled with a variety of extreme challenges. Not only did they have to keep the plane under control, but they also had to quickly decide whether they could make an emergency landing at a nearby airport - or find another alternative to get the plane down safely in one of the most crowded regions in the country. Cases B and C then describe how, after the plane landed in the cold waters of the Hudson River, emergency responders from many agencies and private organizations - converging on the scene without a prior action plan for this type of emergency - scrambled to both rescue passengers and crew and stabilize the aircraft as it began to move downstream. Case Number 1966
Authors :: Jennifer Weeks, Arnold Howitt, Dutch Leonard
Swot Analysis of ""Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549" written by Jennifer Weeks, Arnold Howitt, Dutch Leonard includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that 1549 Plane facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Leadership, Organizational culture, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 casestudy better are - – technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 1549 Plane, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 1549 Plane 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of 1549 Plane
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 1549 Plane
Strengths "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of 1549 Plane in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled 1549 Plane to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped 1549 Plane to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of 1549 Plane in the sector have low bargaining power. "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps 1549 Plane to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that 1549 Plane 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.
Learning organization
- 1549 Plane 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 1549 Plane is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– 1549 Plane 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 1549 Plane in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– 1549 Plane 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 Jennifer Weeks, Arnold Howitt, Dutch Leonard 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– 1549 Plane 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– 1549 Plane has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled 1549 Plane to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the 1549 Plane 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– 1549 Plane 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– 1549 Plane is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– 1549 Plane is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though 1549 Plane has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549, it seems that the employees of 1549 Plane 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of 1549 Plane is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. 1549 Plane needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help 1549 Plane to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– 1549 Plane 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, 1549 Plane 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. 1549 Plane 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
– It come across in the case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as 1549 Plane is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of 1549 Plane products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, 1549 Plane needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of 1549 Plane, firm in the HBR case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though 1549 Plane 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 - "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
1549 Plane 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 1549 Plane is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 | 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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. 1549 Plane can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, 1549 Plane 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 1549 Plane 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– 1549 Plane 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects 1549 Plane can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– 1549 Plane has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for 1549 Plane 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 1549 Plane to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– 1549 Plane 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help 1549 Plane to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for 1549 Plane 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, 1549 Plane can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of 1549 Plane has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help 1549 Plane to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 case study. 1549 Plane can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. 1549 Plane 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. 1549 Plane 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.
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. 1549 Plane can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– 1549 Plane 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 1549 Plane has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, 1549 Plane 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.
Environmental challenges
– 1549 Plane 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. 1549 Plane can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549, 1549 Plane 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 .
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. 1549 Plane 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.
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. 1549 Plane can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 1549 Plane in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that 1549 Plane is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents 1549 Plane with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for 1549 Plane 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.
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 1549 Plane business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 "Miracle on the Hudson" (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 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 1549 Plane needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.