County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response
The anthrax attacks of 2001 exposed serious inadequacies in the response of the U.S. public health system to meet such grave threats. The public health infrastructure required rebuilding to respond to any type of large-scale health emergency. The Public Health Department at Penville County had been charged with implementing an emergency preparedness and response system for the county. Federal funds were provided to the county to develop an emergency preparedness infrastructure that met the requirements specified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. County public officials had to coordinate their efforts to ensure seamless communication, coordination, and information exchange between various divisions within the public health department, external entities, and the state public health agency. Focuses on the director of Public Health Department and the challenges he faced. Explores issues related to structure, organization, culture, and technology infrastructure.
Authors :: Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze, Minu Ipe
Swot Analysis of "County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response" written by Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze, Minu Ipe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that County Health facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, International business, IT, Leadership, Organizational structure, Risk management, Strategic planning and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the County Health, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which County Health 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of County Health
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of County Health
Strengths County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of County Health in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– County Health 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– County Health is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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
– County Health has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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.
Analytics focus
– County Health 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 Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze, Minu Ipe 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of County Health in the sector have low bargaining power. County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps County Health to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– County Health is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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.
Organizational Resilience of County Health
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that County Health does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– County Health is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– County Health 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of County Health in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– County Health is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though County Health 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 - County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
County Health 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of County Health is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. County Health needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help County Health to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, County Health is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response HBR case study mentions - County Health 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, County Health 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Health has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at County Health has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
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 County Health supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left County Health vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze, Minu Ipe suggests that, County Health 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of County Health, firm in the HBR case study County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response | 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response are -
Loyalty marketing
– County Health 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– County Health can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, County Health can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that County Health operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for County Health 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 County Health to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, County Health is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for County Health 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. County Health can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 County Health in the consumer business. Now County Health can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, County Health 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, County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– County Health can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of County Health has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help County Health to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response case study. County Health can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 County Health 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at County Health 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 Organizational Development segment.
Threats County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– County Health 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, County Health 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. County Health can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 County Health.
Increasing wage structure of County Health
– 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 County Health.
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. County Health 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.
Environmental challenges
– County Health 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. County Health can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on County Health 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for County Health in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents County Health with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. County Health needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– County Health 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response, County Health may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response 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 County Health needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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