Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice
Presents the decision by the Federal Court of Appeals for the ninth Circuit in the spring of 2002 to invalidate Seattle's use of race as a factor in allocating space in Seattle's oversubscribed schools. Summarizes the posture and content of the litigation, including its pending review in the Supreme Court of Washington and its origins in Washington's anti-affirmative action movement. Data are presented on the reconcentration of students by race and class that will result from the court decree.
Swot Analysis of "Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice" written by Stig Leschly includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Seattle's Race facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Seattle's Race, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Seattle's Race 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Seattle's Race
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 Seattle's Race
Strengths Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Seattle's Race in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Seattle's Race is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Seattle's Race 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Seattle's Race has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Seattle's Race to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Seattle's Race has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Seattle's Race in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Seattle's Race to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Seattle's Race to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Seattle's Race 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Seattle's Race is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Seattle's Race 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 Stig Leschly can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Seattle's Race in the sector have low bargaining power. Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Seattle's Race to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Seattle's Race 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 Seattle's Race is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Seattle's Race
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Seattle's Race does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Seattle's Race 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Seattle's Race 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 - Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice, it seems that the employees of Seattle's Race 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice, in the dynamic environment Seattle's Race has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Seattle's Race 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle's Race has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Seattle's Race products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Seattle's Race 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, Seattle's Race is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle's Race 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice HBR case study mentions - Seattle's Race 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
Seattle's Race 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice | 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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. Seattle's Race 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 Seattle's Race in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Seattle's Race 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, Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Seattle's Race 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Seattle's Race 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Seattle's Race 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Seattle's Race 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Seattle's Race to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Seattle's Race 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 Seattle's Race to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Seattle's Race 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, Seattle's Race is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Seattle's Race can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Seattle's Race can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Seattle's Race 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Threats Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Seattle's Race with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Seattle's Race in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Seattle's Race has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Seattle's Race needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 Seattle's Race.
Environmental challenges
– Seattle's Race 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. Seattle's Race can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Seattle's Race 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Seattle's Race can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice, Seattle's Race 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 .
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 Seattle's Race business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Seattle's Race 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Seattle's Race 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice 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 Seattle's Race needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
