The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A)
When a jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers in the famous, videotaped beating of a black motorist stopped for speeding, the decision sparked shock, outrage and, in short order riot in the city's African-American South Central section. The six days of unrest that ensued left a staggering toll: 54 dead, more than 2,000 injured, and property damage of almost $1 billion. This case describes the law enforcement response to the riot, raising, in effect, the question of whether, through a different type of response, the unrest could have been controlled more quickly and damage and casualties minimized. The case provides, in some instances for the first time, a detailed look at both the plans and responses of specific law enforcement and emergency response units including the LAPD and fire department, the LA County Sheriff's office, and the California National Guard. It describes key assumptions which proved faulty, problematic inter-agency coordination, as well as heroic individual efforts by some within those departments, which helped restore order.
Swot Analysis of "The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A)" written by Richard Falkenrath, Susan Rosegrant includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Riot Response facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Riot Response, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Riot Response 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Riot Response
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 Riot Response
Strengths The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Riot Response in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Riot Response
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Riot Response does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Riot Response digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Riot Response 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.
High brand equity
– Riot Response has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Riot Response to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Riot Response to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Riot Response to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Riot Response has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Riot Response is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Riot Response is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 Riot Response 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Riot Response is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Riot Response 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Riot Response 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 Riot Response in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Riot Response in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Riot Response, firm in the HBR case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) HBR case study mentions - Riot Response 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Riot Response 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 - The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Riot Response supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Riot Response vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 Riot Response has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A), in the dynamic environment Riot Response has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Riot Response has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Richard Falkenrath, Susan Rosegrant suggests that, Riot Response 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Riot Response 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Riot Response is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Riot Response 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A), is just above the industry average. Riot Response needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) | 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Riot Response has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Riot Response to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) case study. Riot Response can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Riot Response 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Riot Response is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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.
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. Riot Response 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. Riot Response 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Riot Response 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Riot Response 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Riot Response 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Riot Response 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Riot Response 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Riot Response can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Riot Response to increase its market reach. Riot Response 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Riot Response can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Riot Response operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Riot Response can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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.
Threats The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Riot Response 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Riot Response 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Riot Response 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Riot Response 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.
Increasing wage structure of Riot Response
– 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 Riot Response.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A), Riot Response 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 .
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 Riot Response.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Riot Response has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Riot Response 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.
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.
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. Riot Response 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.
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. Riot Response can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Riot Response with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A) 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 Riot Response needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.