To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose
This case study tells the story of San Jose, California, one of the first 27 cities in the country to participate in a federal domestic preparedness program. Between 1997 and 1999, a specially created city task force mounted several full-scale terrorist attack exercises, but-despite the best of intentions-found all of them frustrating, demoralizing, and divisive, creating ill will between the exercise planners and the first responders. In response, the San Jose task force took a step back and analyzed their situation. In place of traditional full-scale exercises, San Jose drew on several existing prototypes to create a new "facilitated exercise" model that emphasized teaching over testing, and was much better received by first responders. For teaching flexibility, the case has been divided into three parts. The main case describes San Jose's early experience, ending at a crucial moment, when the task force was forced to face the fact that its approach was not working. It is designed to spark a class discussion about what seems to be going awry, and how the problems might be solved. HKS Case Number 1815.0
Swot Analysis of "To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose" written by Pamela Varley, Arnold Howitt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Jose San facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Project management, Risk management, Security & privacy, Strategic planning, Workspaces and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jose San, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jose San 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jose San
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 Jose San
Strengths To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jose San in To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Jose San in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Jose San 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Jose San 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Jose San has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Jose San 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.
Learning organization
- Jose San 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 Jose San is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Jose San 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Jose San 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 Jose San in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Jose San in the sector have low bargaining power. To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Jose San to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Jose San 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 Pamela Varley, Arnold Howitt 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Jose San to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Jose San to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Jose San
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Jose San does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Jose San is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Jose San 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose HBR case study mentions - Jose San 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose, 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Jose San is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Jose San 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. Jose San 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.
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 Jose San supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Jose San vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose, it seems that the employees of Jose San 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Jose San 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 - To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Jose San products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Jose San needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Jose San 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Jose San, firm in the HBR case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose | 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose are -
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. Jose San can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Jose San 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, To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Jose San can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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.
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. Jose San 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. Jose San 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Jose San 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Jose San can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jose San operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Jose San is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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
– Jose San 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.
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. Jose San can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Jose San 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Jose San 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 Jose San 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 Jose San to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Jose San in the consumer business. Now Jose San can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Jose San 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.
Threats To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose, Jose San 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Jose San 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 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.
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. Jose San can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Jose San business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Jose San in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Jose San has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Jose San 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.
Increasing wage structure of Jose San
– 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 Jose San.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Jose San with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Jose San 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. Jose San can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jose San is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Jose San.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Jose San 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose 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 Jose San needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
