Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado
In a matter of minutes on the afternoon of April 27, 2011, a massive and powerful tornado leveled 1/8 of the area of Tuscaloosa, AL, a city of approximately 90,000 people and home to the University of Alabama. Doctrine called for the County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) to take the lead in organizing the response to the disaster - but one of the first buildings destroyed during the event housed the County EMA offices, leaving the agency completely incapacitated. Thus, in the minutes and hours following the tornado, the City of Tuscaloosa found itself largely on its own as it began implementing a response. Fortunately, the city had taken several steps in the preceding years to prepare for responding to a major disaster. This included having sent a delegation of close to 70 city officials and community leaders, led by Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox, to a week-long training organized by FEMA. "Ready in Advance" reveals how that training, along with other preparedness activities undertaken by the city, would pay major dividends in the aftermath of the tornado, as the mayor and his staff - coordinating with an array of local, state, and federal counterparts - set forth to respond to one of the worst disasters in Tuscaloosa's history. Case number 2056.0
Swot Analysis of "Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado" written by Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tornado Tuscaloosa facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Leadership, Leadership development, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, wage bills are increasing,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tornado Tuscaloosa, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tornado Tuscaloosa
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa
Strengths Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tornado Tuscaloosa in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Tornado Tuscaloosa is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Tornado Tuscaloosa has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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.
High brand equity
– Tornado Tuscaloosa has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tornado Tuscaloosa to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Tornado Tuscaloosa is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tornado Tuscaloosa in the sector have low bargaining power. Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tornado Tuscaloosa to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tornado Tuscaloosa is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tornado Tuscaloosa in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Tornado Tuscaloosa
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tornado Tuscaloosa does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tornado Tuscaloosa has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tornado Tuscaloosa is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado are -
Need for greater diversity
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Tornado Tuscaloosa products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Tornado Tuscaloosa needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tornado Tuscaloosa has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, is just above the industry average. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, in the dynamic environment Tornado Tuscaloosa has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tornado Tuscaloosa has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 - Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado | 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tornado Tuscaloosa is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tornado Tuscaloosa to increase its market reach. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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. Tornado Tuscaloosa can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tornado Tuscaloosa has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tornado Tuscaloosa to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado case study. Tornado Tuscaloosa can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Threats Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado are -
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tornado Tuscaloosa has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Tornado Tuscaloosa
– 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa.
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. Tornado Tuscaloosa needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.