Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround
Using quality circles and teams is fairly new to education--and is constrained by how schools are organized and a past emphasis on teacher autonomy. Can school leaders borrow from the business practice of using teams to promote student learning in their schools? This note discusses the information gleaned from participants in the Turnaround Specialist Program that is part of a Darden partnership with the Curry School of Education. The principals in that program conclude that teams made the formidable task of meeting federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards more manageable.
Swot Analysis of "Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround" written by June West, Pamela D. Tucker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Teams School facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leading teams and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Teams School, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Teams School 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Teams School
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Teams School
Strengths Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Teams School in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Teams School is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Teams School has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Teams School 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.
Organizational Resilience of Teams School
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Teams School does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Teams School in the sector have low bargaining power. Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Teams School to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Teams School 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 Teams School is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Teams School is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Teams School 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 Teams School in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Teams School 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Teams School 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Teams School to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Teams School to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Teams School in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Teams School 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.
Weaknesses Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Teams School 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.
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 Teams School supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Teams School vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround HBR case study mentions - Teams School takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Teams School is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Teams School needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Teams School to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, in the dynamic environment Teams School has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Teams School has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Teams School 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, it seems that the employees of Teams School 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Teams School 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Teams School products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Teams School needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Teams School 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Opportunities Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround | 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Teams School to increase its market reach. Teams School 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Teams School 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Teams School can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Teams School 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Teams School 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, Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, 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 Teams School has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Teams School to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround case study. Teams School can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Teams School can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Teams School 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. Teams School 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Teams School can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Teams School operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Teams School can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Teams School 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 Teams School to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Teams School in the consumer business. Now Teams School can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Teams School can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Teams School 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Teams School 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Teams School with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Teams School can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround, Teams School may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Environmental challenges
– Teams School 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. Teams School can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
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.
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 Teams School in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Teams School business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Teams School
– 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 Teams School.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Teams School 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.
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. Teams School 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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 Teams: Harnessing the Driving Force for School Turnaround 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 Teams School needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
