The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution?
Healthcare, the largest industry in the United States, is in crisis, and threatens to bankrupt the nation's economy. Medical errors kill an estimated 98,000 people per year, and accessibility to adequate healthcare is an increasing problem for much of the country's citizenry. Despite being one of the most important keys to resolving this crisis, a national electronic healthcare network (eHealth) is under-appreciated and under-exploited, and faces several formidable barriers to implementation. Current and prospective national political leadership has focused narrowly on a subset of issues, in the belief that the crisis cannot be addressed holistically due to political interests. Yet the barriers that greatly impede eHealth's potential to help solve the crisis can only be removed in a timely manner by a comprehensive, national framework that reshapes the legal, operational, and economic landscape for eHealth. Only a greater public awareness that encourages national legislative action can enhance eHealth's potential to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare while reducing its cost.a??a??a??a??a??
Swot Analysis of "The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution?" written by John W. Hill, Phillip Powell includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ehealth Healthcare facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Networking, Personnel policies and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ehealth Healthcare, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ehealth Healthcare operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ehealth Healthcare
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 Ehealth Healthcare
Strengths The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ehealth Healthcare in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Ehealth Healthcare is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ehealth Healthcare in the sector have low bargaining power. The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ehealth Healthcare to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ehealth Healthcare 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 The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ehealth Healthcare to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ehealth Healthcare to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Ehealth Healthcare 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 Ehealth Healthcare in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Ehealth Healthcare has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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.
Learning organization
- Ehealth Healthcare 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 Ehealth Healthcare is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Ehealth Healthcare is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ehealth Healthcare digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ehealth Healthcare is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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
– Ehealth Healthcare has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ehealth Healthcare 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. Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution?, is just above the industry average. Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? HBR case study mentions - Ehealth Healthcare 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ehealth Healthcare, firm in the HBR case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ehealth Healthcare 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 The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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 Ehealth Healthcare has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ehealth Healthcare is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Opportunities The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ehealth Healthcare can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ehealth Healthcare operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Ehealth Healthcare can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ehealth Healthcare has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ehealth Healthcare to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? case study. Ehealth Healthcare can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ehealth Healthcare can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ehealth Healthcare is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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
– Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ehealth Healthcare 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 Ehealth Healthcare to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ehealth Healthcare 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 The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ehealth Healthcare to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ehealth Healthcare to increase its market reach. Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ehealth Healthcare 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. Ehealth Healthcare can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? are -
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 Ehealth Healthcare.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Increasing wage structure of Ehealth Healthcare
– 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 Ehealth Healthcare.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution?, Ehealth Healthcare 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ehealth Healthcare 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.
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. Ehealth Healthcare 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
– Ehealth Healthcare 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. Ehealth Healthcare can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ehealth Healthcare 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ehealth Healthcare 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.
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 Ehealth Healthcare business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ehealth Healthcare has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ehealth Healthcare needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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 Ehealth Healthcare in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The National Healthcare Crisis: Is eHealth a Key Solution? 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 Ehealth Healthcare needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.