Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard
Illustrates the adaptation and implementation of a private sector management tool, the Balanced Scorecard, to a public school district. As part of a continuous improvement initiative, the Director of Planning and Policy facilitates the development of a strategy map and scorecard for the district. She then helps cascade the scoreboard down to individual school scorecards, and up to the school board, where it is used to monitor and guide the district's accomplishments. The implementation, however, hits some problems when the superintendent resigns, followed by high turnover among his replacements. Enables a discussion of the role of centralization versus decentralization in setting school objectives and accountability, issues that arise when introducing performance management into public school districts, and the role for leadership and governance in driving improvements in school achievement.
Swot Analysis of "Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard" written by Robert S. Kaplan, Monica Lee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that School Scorecard facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the School Scorecard, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which School Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of School Scorecard
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of School Scorecard
Strengths Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of School Scorecard in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– School Scorecard is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– School Scorecard has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled School Scorecard to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of School Scorecard
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that School Scorecard does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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)
– School Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– School Scorecard is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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.
Analytics focus
– School Scorecard 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 Robert S. Kaplan, Monica Lee 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the School Scorecard 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that School Scorecard 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.
Strong track record of project management
– School Scorecard is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For School Scorecard digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. School Scorecard has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Learning organization
- School Scorecard 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 School Scorecard is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard are -
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 School Scorecard supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left School Scorecard vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though School Scorecard 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 - Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard, in the dynamic environment School Scorecard has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. School Scorecard has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 School Scorecard has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at School Scorecard has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– School Scorecard 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of School Scorecard is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. School Scorecard needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help School Scorecard to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of School Scorecard, firm in the HBR case study Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, School Scorecard 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as School Scorecard is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert S. Kaplan, Monica Lee suggests that, School Scorecard 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.
Opportunities Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard | 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard are -
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help School Scorecard to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, School Scorecard is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. School Scorecard can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of School Scorecard has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help School Scorecard to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard case study. School Scorecard can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. School Scorecard can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for School Scorecard in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help School Scorecard to increase its market reach. School Scorecard 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
– School Scorecard 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, School Scorecard 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, Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, School Scorecard 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.
Buying journey improvements
– School Scorecard can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– School Scorecard 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.
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 School Scorecard in the consumer business. Now School Scorecard can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard are -
Environmental challenges
– School Scorecard 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. School Scorecard can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of School Scorecard
– 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 School Scorecard.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– School Scorecard has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, School Scorecard needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
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 School Scorecard in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 School Scorecard.
Regulatory challenges
– School Scorecard 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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. School Scorecard 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard, School Scorecard may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that School Scorecard is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– School Scorecard 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.
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 School Scorecard 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 Fulton County School System: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard 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 School Scorecard needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
