Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities
Labor-management cooperation has been regarded for many years as a panacea for organizations' competitive woes. The academic and popular presses have lauded the joint efforts of companies and their unionized workforces to come together to solve companies' competitive problems while saving employees' jobs. Moreover, research on and examples of labor-management cooperation have found that through joint efforts, unions and firms can improve organizational performance and employee outcomes. Increasingly, however, it appears that cooperation is often but a short-lived phenomenon. This article examines a major initiative of labor-management cooperation that was undertaken to facilitate the fundamental restructuring of the health care delivery system in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. For 10 years, management of more than a dozen hospitals and representatives of the Minnesota Nurses' Association came together to negotiate and manage the process of system integration, rationalization, and delivery improvement. The results were remarkable. Yet, just a few years later, despite the success, only remnants of labor-management cooperation remain in these hospitals. This article examines the reasons for this demise and provides lessons for those engaged in cooperative undertakings that may help extend the life of those initiatives.
Swot Analysis of "Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities" written by Gil Preuss, Ann C. Frost includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cooperation Labor facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations, Performance measurement and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cooperation Labor, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cooperation Labor 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cooperation Labor
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 Cooperation Labor
Strengths Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cooperation Labor in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Cooperation Labor is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cooperation Labor digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cooperation Labor 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
– Cooperation Labor is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Cooperation Labor has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cooperation Labor to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cooperation Labor has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Training and development
– Cooperation Labor has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Cooperation Labor is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Cooperation Labor 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 Gil Preuss, Ann C. Frost 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cooperation Labor 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Cooperation Labor 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 Cooperation Labor in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cooperation Labor has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cooperation Labor 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Cooperation Labor is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cooperation Labor is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Cooperation Labor needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cooperation Labor to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cooperation Labor 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 - Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities, it seems that the employees of Cooperation Labor 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities HBR case study mentions - Cooperation Labor 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 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 Cooperation Labor supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cooperation Labor 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Cooperation Labor has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cooperation Labor 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Cooperation Labor 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 Cooperation Labor, firm in the HBR case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities, is just above the industry average. Cooperation Labor 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cooperation Labor is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities | 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities are -
Loyalty marketing
– Cooperation Labor 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cooperation Labor can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cooperation Labor can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Cooperation Labor in the consumer business. Now Cooperation Labor can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cooperation Labor is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cooperation Labor 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cooperation Labor in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cooperation Labor 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. Cooperation Labor 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cooperation Labor 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cooperation Labor to increase its market reach. Cooperation Labor 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.
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. Cooperation Labor can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cooperation Labor 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 Cooperation Labor to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cooperation Labor 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.
Threats Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cooperation Labor 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.
Increasing wage structure of Cooperation Labor
– 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 Cooperation Labor.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cooperation Labor 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities .
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. Cooperation Labor can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cooperation Labor 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.
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 Cooperation Labor business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Cooperation Labor 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. Cooperation Labor can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cooperation Labor 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.
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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cooperation Labor 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities, Cooperation Labor 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Cooperation Labor 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Rise and Decline of Labor-Management Cooperation: Lessons from Health Care in the Twin Cities 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 Cooperation Labor needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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