Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11
This case looks at the turnaround at the Massachusetts Port Authority after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It begins with the situation during the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and then describes how the new CEO restructures the public agency to operate much more like a business organization.
Swot Analysis of "Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11" written by Michael A. Roberto, Erika M. Ferlins includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that 9 11 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Security & privacy and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 9 11, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 9 11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of 9 11
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 9 11
Strengths Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of 9 11 in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of 9 11 in the sector have low bargaining power. Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps 9 11 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– 9 11 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 9 11 in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– 9 11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 - 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 9 11 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of 9 11 in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– 9 11 has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Learning organization
- 9 11 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 9 11 is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– 9 11 is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 recruit top talent
– 9 11 is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– 9 11 is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of 9 11
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that 9 11 does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 9 11 is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, 9 11 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of 9 11 is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. 9 11 needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help 9 11 to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11, is just above the industry average. 9 11 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, 9 11 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as 9 11 is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of 9 11, firm in the HBR case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 9 11 has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract 9 11 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though 9 11 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 - Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 | 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, 9 11 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.
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. 9 11 can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– 9 11 can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. 9 11 can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at 9 11 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 Organizational Development segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– 9 11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help 9 11 to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 9 11 in the consumer business. Now 9 11 can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. 9 11 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. 9 11 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 9 11 in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– 9 11 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.
Loyalty marketing
– 9 11 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of 9 11 has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help 9 11 to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 case study. 9 11 can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– 9 11 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.
Threats Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for 9 11 in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 9 11 has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, 9 11 needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– 9 11 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents 9 11 with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. 9 11 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that 9 11 is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– 9 11 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. 9 11 can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on 9 11 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.
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 9 11.
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.
Increasing wage structure of 9 11
– 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 9 11.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11, 9 11 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 .
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 9 11 in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 Massport (A): The Aftermath of 9/11 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 9 11 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
