Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact
In June 2008, Jesse Solomon, the founding director of the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR), faced an important decision about the organization's strategic direction. Since its founding in 2003, 125 of its graduates had joined the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and BTR had established a reputation as a provider of some of the district's best-prepared new teachers. Yet Solomon wondered if their approach so far was optimal going forward. Carol Johnson, the new superintendent for BPS, was developing a district-wide improvement strategy that prioritized accelerating the performance of the district's lowest performing schools. But, relatively few BTR graduates joined these schools - they were free to pursue teaching openings at any school in the district. Solomon knew the potential to partner more closely with the new superintendent was a time-sensitive opportunity with a number of questions. What were the implications of moving from an open hiring market to the placement of cohorts of BTR graduates in high-priority schools? Was BTR's model sufficient to prepare new teachers to join struggling schools in the absence of a comprehensive turnaround strategy? How could BTR continue to strengthen the quality of its program while supporting the new superintendent's priorities?
Authors :: Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta, Sara Suchman
Swot Analysis of "Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact" written by Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta, Sara Suchman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Btr Solomon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Hiring, Human resource management, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Btr Solomon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Btr Solomon 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Btr Solomon
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Btr Solomon
Strengths Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Btr Solomon in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Btr Solomon has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Btr Solomon has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Diverse revenue streams
– Btr Solomon is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Btr Solomon 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 Btr Solomon in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Btr Solomon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Btr Solomon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Btr Solomon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Btr Solomon 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 Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta, Sara Suchman 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Btr Solomon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Btr Solomon 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Btr Solomon in the sector have low bargaining power. Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Btr Solomon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Btr Solomon to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Btr Solomon to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Btr Solomon 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.
Weaknesses Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Btr Solomon, firm in the HBR case study Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta, Sara Suchman suggests that, Btr Solomon 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Btr Solomon 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 - Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Btr Solomon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Btr Solomon has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Btr Solomon 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Btr Solomon 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.
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 Btr Solomon supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Btr Solomon vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Btr Solomon 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. Btr Solomon 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Btr Solomon is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Btr Solomon 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.
Opportunities Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact | 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact are -
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. Btr Solomon can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Btr Solomon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Btr Solomon 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 Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Btr Solomon can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Btr Solomon 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
– Btr Solomon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Btr Solomon to increase its market reach. Btr Solomon 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Btr Solomon 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Btr Solomon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Btr Solomon 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. Btr Solomon 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Btr Solomon 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, Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Btr Solomon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Btr Solomon can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Btr Solomon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Btr Solomon to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact case study. Btr Solomon can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Btr Solomon is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Btr Solomon with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Btr Solomon in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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 Btr Solomon business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Btr Solomon 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 Leadership & Managing People 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. Btr Solomon 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 Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Btr Solomon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Btr Solomon needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact, Btr Solomon may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Btr Solomon 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Btr Solomon 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact .
Increasing wage structure of Btr Solomon
– 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 Btr Solomon.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-Term Impact 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 Btr Solomon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
