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 - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning organization
- Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tornado Tuscaloosa digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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 -
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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald suggests that, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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 Tornado Tuscaloosa supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Tornado Tuscaloosa has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tornado Tuscaloosa is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tornado Tuscaloosa, firm in the HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, it seems that the employees of Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tornado Tuscaloosa to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tornado Tuscaloosa 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, Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tornado Tuscaloosa can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tornado Tuscaloosa can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help 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.
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 -
Environmental challenges
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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. Tornado Tuscaloosa can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tornado Tuscaloosa 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tornado Tuscaloosa can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tornado Tuscaloosa 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
