Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School
Coach Bob Hurley of St. Anthony High School is one of the winningest coaches in the history of high school basketball. At age 65, he has won more than 1,000 games and 25 New Jersey State Championships. His players come from the toughtest streets in the country and yet all but 3 have gone on to college. As head coach, he earns less than $10,000 a year; his circa 1917 school building doesn't even have a gym. And yet, for almost 40 years he has turned down all offers to leave a small, aging, catholic school in Jersey City, NJ. This is biographical case about a tough-love leader who epitomizes what it means to be authentic. It was written for a course on authentic leadership development to highlight the origins and potential of deep self-knowledge and passion. Class discussion focuses on the tensions between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and the role that this plays in our lives.
Swot Analysis of "Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School" written by Scott A. Snook, Bradley C. Lawrence includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Coach Hurley facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership development, Leading teams and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Coach Hurley, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Coach Hurley
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 Coach Hurley
Strengths Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Coach Hurley in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Coach Hurley to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Coach Hurley to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Coach Hurley 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 Scott A. Snook, Bradley C. Lawrence 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Coach Hurley in the sector have low bargaining power. Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Coach Hurley to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Coach Hurley
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Coach Hurley does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Coach Hurley is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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
– Coach Hurley is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Coach Hurley in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Coach Hurley is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Coach Hurley 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. Coach Hurley 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Coach Hurley 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Coach Hurley is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Coach Hurley needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Coach Hurley to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Coach Hurley products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Coach Hurley needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Coach Hurley 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Coach Hurley is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School, is just above the industry average. Coach Hurley 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Coach Hurley is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Scott A. Snook, Bradley C. Lawrence suggests that, Coach Hurley 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 industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Coach Hurley, firm in the HBR case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School | 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School are -
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. Coach Hurley 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. Coach Hurley 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.
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 Coach Hurley in the consumer business. Now Coach Hurley can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Coach Hurley to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Coach Hurley 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Coach Hurley 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. Coach Hurley can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Coach Hurley 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Coach Hurley 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Coach Hurley can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Coach Hurley 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Coach Hurley to increase its market reach. Coach Hurley 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Coach Hurley 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.
Threats Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School are -
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. Coach Hurley 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 Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Coach Hurley 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 Coach Hurley is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Coach Hurley
– 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 Coach Hurley.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Coach Hurley 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Coach Hurley has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Coach Hurley 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School, Coach Hurley 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Coach Hurley 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Coach Hurley 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. Coach Hurley can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Coach Hurley 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Coach Hurley 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.
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.
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 Coach Hurley business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School 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 Coach Hurley needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.