HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A)
A review of the process utilized by the Obama administration to create the Health Care.gov exchange and the problems that resulted from the implementation effort. There is a B case that provides the follow on strategy and processes utilized to get the site up and running after the initial failures of implementation.
Authors :: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Paras D. Bhayani
Swot Analysis of "HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A)" written by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Paras D. Bhayani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Utilized Care.gov facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Internet, IT, Regulation, Strategy execution and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Utilized Care.gov, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Utilized Care.gov
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 Utilized Care.gov
Strengths HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Utilized Care.gov in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Utilized Care.gov has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Learning organization
- Utilized Care.gov 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 Utilized Care.gov is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Utilized Care.gov 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 Utilized Care.gov
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Utilized Care.gov does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Utilized Care.gov is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Utilized Care.gov in the sector have low bargaining power. HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Utilized Care.gov to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Utilized Care.gov in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Utilized Care.gov has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Utilized Care.gov 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Utilized Care.gov is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Utilized Care.gov 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 Utilized Care.gov in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Utilized Care.gov 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Utilized Care.gov has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Utilized Care.gov 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Utilized Care.gov 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. Utilized Care.gov 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Utilized Care.gov 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Utilized Care.gov, firm in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Utilized Care.gov products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Utilized Care.gov needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A), it seems that the employees of Utilized Care.gov 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A), is just above the industry average. Utilized Care.gov 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, Utilized Care.gov is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Utilized Care.gov 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.
Opportunities HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) are -
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. Utilized Care.gov 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. Utilized Care.gov 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Utilized Care.gov 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Utilized Care.gov 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Utilized Care.gov to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Utilized Care.gov 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Utilized Care.gov has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Utilized Care.gov to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) case study. Utilized Care.gov can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Utilized Care.gov is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) 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
– Utilized Care.gov 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Utilized Care.gov can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
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. Utilized Care.gov can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Utilized Care.gov 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Utilized Care.gov 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Utilized Care.gov can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Utilized Care.gov is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Utilized Care.gov business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Utilized Care.gov 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. Utilized Care.gov can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Utilized Care.gov 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.
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. Utilized Care.gov can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Utilized Care.gov 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Utilized Care.gov has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Utilized Care.gov 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.
Increasing wage structure of Utilized Care.gov
– 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 Utilized Care.gov.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Utilized Care.gov with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Utilized Care.gov 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 HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (A) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Utilized Care.gov needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.