Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing
Siemens Medical Solutions (SMS) offered innovative products and systems, clinical solutions, and services for medical professionals. Its latest project, transforming a hospital to digital records and processes, was experiencing serious delays that had damaged the relationship with the client. Management believed the underlying problem was that SMS was not using the correct approach to organization and processes for solutions marketing. The executives in charge of on-time completion and successful delivery of the project must now agree on a different recommendation.
Authors :: Mohanbir Sawhney, Shankar Balakrishnan, Maryam Balali, Brit Gould
Swot Analysis of "Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing" written by Mohanbir Sawhney, Shankar Balakrishnan, Maryam Balali, Brit Gould includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Solutions Sms facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Solutions Sms, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Solutions Sms 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Solutions Sms
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 Solutions Sms
Strengths Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Solutions Sms in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Solutions Sms to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Solutions Sms to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Solutions Sms 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 Solutions Sms in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Solutions Sms 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 Solutions Sms is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Solutions Sms are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Solutions Sms
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Solutions Sms does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Solutions Sms 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Solutions Sms is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Solutions Sms has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Solutions Sms to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Solutions Sms in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Solutions Sms is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Solutions Sms has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Solutions Sms 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Solutions Sms products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Solutions Sms needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Solutions Sms is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, in the dynamic environment Solutions Sms has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Solutions Sms has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing HBR case study mentions - Solutions Sms 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mohanbir Sawhney, Shankar Balakrishnan, Maryam Balali, Brit Gould suggests that, Solutions Sms 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Solutions Sms 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Solutions Sms 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, is just above the industry average. Solutions Sms 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, it seems that the employees of Solutions Sms 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Solutions Sms is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing | 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Solutions Sms is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Solutions Sms 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.
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. Solutions Sms can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Solutions Sms 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.
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. Solutions Sms can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Solutions Sms 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. Solutions Sms 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Solutions Sms 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Solutions Sms to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Solutions Sms 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, Solutions Sms can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Solutions Sms operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Solutions Sms 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Solutions Sms 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Solutions Sms 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Solutions Sms 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, Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing, Solutions Sms 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 .
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.
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. Solutions Sms needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Solutions Sms 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.
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.
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 Solutions Sms in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Solutions Sms 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 wage structure of Solutions Sms
– 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 Solutions Sms.
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. Solutions Sms 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 Solutions Sms.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Solutions Sms with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Solutions Sms has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Solutions Sms 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Solutions Sms 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Siemens Medical Solutions: Creating a Customer-Focused Organization for Solutions Marketing 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 Solutions Sms needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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