Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged)
After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public School System is faced with rebuilding from the ground up. The challenge is enormous, as is the opportunity to remake the lowest performing public school system in Louisiana and one of the lowest performing in the nation. A variety of public officials, politicians, and entrepreneurs are engaged in the rebuilding process. Also, explores the tensions that emerge as the community faces both the rebuilding task and conflicting visions of what the future should look like.
Swot Analysis of "Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged)" written by Stacey Childress includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rebuilding Orleans facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Financial management, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rebuilding Orleans, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rebuilding Orleans
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Rebuilding Orleans
Strengths Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rebuilding Orleans in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding Orleans in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rebuilding Orleans is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Rebuilding Orleans digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rebuilding Orleans to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rebuilding Orleans to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Rebuilding Orleans has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rebuilding Orleans to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Rebuilding Orleans in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Rebuilding Orleans is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Training and development
– Rebuilding Orleans has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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.
Weaknesses Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding Orleans supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Rebuilding Orleans vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rebuilding Orleans 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 - Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Rebuilding Orleans is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Rebuilding Orleans products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Rebuilding Orleans needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Rebuilding Orleans is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) HBR case study mentions - Rebuilding Orleans 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Rebuilding Orleans has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged), in the dynamic environment Rebuilding Orleans has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Rebuilding Orleans has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged), it seems that the employees of Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rebuilding Orleans 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. Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Opportunities Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) | 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Rebuilding Orleans 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.
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 Rebuilding Orleans 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.
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 Rebuilding Orleans in the consumer business. Now Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding Orleans to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Rebuilding Orleans can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rebuilding Orleans in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Rebuilding Orleans 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. Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rebuilding Orleans can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rebuilding Orleans has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rebuilding Orleans to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) case study. Rebuilding Orleans can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rebuilding Orleans is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding Orleans 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Threats Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) are -
Increasing wage structure of Rebuilding Orleans
– 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 Rebuilding Orleans.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Environmental challenges
– Rebuilding Orleans 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. Rebuilding Orleans can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rebuilding Orleans with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged), Rebuilding Orleans may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rebuilding Orleans has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rebuilding Orleans needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Rebuilding Orleans 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) .
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Rebuilding Orleans in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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 Rebuilding Orleans.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rebuilding Orleans 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rebuilding Orleans 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.
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. Rebuilding Orleans needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged) 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 Rebuilding Orleans needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.