Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A)
In July 2012, a gunman entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire, killing 12 people, injuring 58 others, and traumatizing a community. This case briefly describes the shooting and emergency response but focuses primarily on the recovery process in the year that followed. In particular, it highlights the work of the Aurora Public Schools, which under the leadership of Superintendent John L. Barry, drew on years of emergency management training to play a substantial role in the response and then unveiled an expansive recovery plan. This included hiring a full-time disaster recovery coordinator, partnering with an array of community organizations, and holding mental health workshops and other events to support APS community members. The case also details the range of reactions that staff and community members had to APS' efforts, broader community-wide recovery efforts, and stakeholders' perspectives on the effectiveness of the recovery. HKS Case Number 2024.0.
Swot Analysis of "Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A)" written by Arnold M. Howitt, David L. Tannenwald includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Recovery Aurora facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) casestudy better are - – technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Recovery Aurora, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Recovery Aurora
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 Recovery Aurora
Strengths Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Recovery Aurora in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Recovery Aurora has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Recovery Aurora is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Recovery Aurora has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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.
Organizational Resilience of Recovery Aurora
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Recovery Aurora does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Recovery Aurora is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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
– Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Recovery Aurora 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 Arnold M. Howitt, David L. 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Recovery Aurora in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Recovery Aurora to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Recovery Aurora to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery Aurora is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) HBR case study mentions - Recovery Aurora 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Recovery Aurora, firm in the HBR case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery Aurora has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A), 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A), is just above the industry average. Recovery Aurora 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Recovery Aurora 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 - Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Recovery Aurora 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Recovery Aurora is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arnold M. Howitt, David L. Tannenwald suggests that, Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery Aurora supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Recovery Aurora vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Recovery Aurora is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Recovery Aurora 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, Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Recovery Aurora 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.
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 Recovery Aurora in the consumer business. Now Recovery Aurora can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Recovery Aurora can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Recovery Aurora can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Recovery Aurora 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Recovery Aurora 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.
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. Recovery Aurora can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Recovery Aurora to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Recovery Aurora can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Recovery Aurora operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery Aurora to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Recovery Aurora can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Recovery Aurora 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.
Threats Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) are -
Environmental challenges
– Recovery Aurora 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. Recovery Aurora can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A), Recovery Aurora 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Recovery Aurora with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Recovery Aurora.
Increasing wage structure of Recovery Aurora
– 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 Recovery Aurora.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Recovery Aurora 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.
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. Recovery Aurora can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Recovery Aurora 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.
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. Recovery Aurora 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Recovery Aurora 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.
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. Recovery Aurora needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Recovery Aurora 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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (A) .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools' Response to the July 2012 Movie Theater Shooting (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 Recovery Aurora needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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