Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students
During his second year as a high school teacher in South Carolina, Reid Saaris noticed that a highly academically capable student was not registered for advanced classes. The student was African American and Saaris observed that most African-American students at the school were enrolled in lower-level courses. As Saaris walked down the hallway, he could see "on one side a 12th grade English class playing an all-class game of hangman and half of the kids asleep with their teacher saying, 'Who wants to guess the next letter?' And on the other side, kids debating and discussing interesting literature and ideas about citizenship." He and the student went to the school office where Saaris switched the aspiring young man into advanced-level courses. The following year, Saaris was promoted to running the school's advanced programs. Inspired, he led an initiative to "find all the missing students" from the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, meeting with every 10th grader at the school. The initiative had a stunning impact. Within one year, the school's AP and IB programs had doubled in size, with the number of African-American students in advanced classes tripling. At the same time, the success rate for all students on the AP and IB exams increased by 20 percent. This case recounts the subsequent path that Saaris followed to take his efforts to a national level. He established Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) with the aim of closing the access gap to advanced courses for minority and low-income students. The case details the organization's outreach and application process as well as the successes that EOS achieved and the challenges that it faced. It culminates with the announcement of the Lead Higher Initiative for which EOS would dramatically increase the number of schools with which it partnered over the next three years. Students are asked to propose a growth strategy, consider whether EOS should modify its funding model, and articulate the messages and approaches it should employ to gain the attention of school districts.
Swot Analysis of "Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students" written by William F Meehan, Davina Drabkin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Saaris Eos facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, Growth strategy, Race, Sales and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Saaris Eos, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Saaris Eos 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Saaris Eos
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 Saaris Eos
Strengths Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Saaris Eos in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Saaris Eos in the sector have low bargaining power. Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Saaris Eos to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Saaris Eos to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Saaris Eos to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Saaris Eos 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 Saaris Eos is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Saaris Eos 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 brand equity
– Saaris Eos has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Saaris Eos to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Saaris Eos has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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.
Analytics focus
– Saaris Eos 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 William F Meehan, Davina Drabkin 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Saaris Eos in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Saaris Eos 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Saaris Eos 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Saaris Eos is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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.
Weaknesses Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Saaris Eos has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Saaris Eos 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Saaris Eos 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Saaris Eos products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Saaris Eos needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students, is just above the industry average. Saaris Eos 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Saaris Eos 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 - Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Saaris Eos 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Saaris Eos is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Saaris Eos needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Saaris Eos to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Saaris Eos has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students HBR case study mentions - Saaris Eos 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students, it seems that the employees of Saaris Eos 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.
Opportunities Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students | 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Saaris Eos 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. Saaris Eos 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Saaris Eos is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Saaris Eos 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Developing new processes and practices
– Saaris Eos can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Saaris Eos 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Saaris Eos to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Saaris Eos 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.
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. Saaris Eos 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 Saaris Eos 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.
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 Saaris Eos in the consumer business. Now Saaris Eos 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 Saaris Eos 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 Saaris Eos to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Saaris Eos can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Saaris Eos 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Saaris Eos can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Saaris Eos can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Saaris Eos 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. Saaris Eos can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Saaris Eos 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Saaris Eos 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students .
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. Saaris Eos 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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Saaris Eos needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Saaris Eos in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Saaris Eos has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Saaris Eos 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.
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 Saaris Eos business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Saaris Eos.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Saaris Eos is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Saaris Eos 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students 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 Saaris Eos needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
