The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate
In 2009, the Senate begins drafting its health care bills. Jurisdiction in the Senate is shared between two committees, but the more important is the Senate Finance Committee.
Swot Analysis of "The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate" written by Joseph L. Bower, Michael Norris includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Senate Drafting facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Senate Drafting, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Senate Drafting 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Senate Drafting
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 Senate Drafting
Strengths The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Senate Drafting in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Senate Drafting has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Senate Drafting 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.
High brand equity
– Senate Drafting has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Senate Drafting to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Senate Drafting 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Senate Drafting digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Senate Drafting 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Senate Drafting 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Senate Drafting 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 Senate Drafting is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Senate Drafting is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Senate Drafting has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Senate Drafting 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.
Analytics focus
– Senate Drafting 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 Joseph L. Bower, Michael Norris 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Senate Drafting is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Senate Drafting 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. Senate Drafting 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joseph L. Bower, Michael Norris suggests that, Senate Drafting 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Senate Drafting is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Senate Drafting needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Senate Drafting to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Senate Drafting 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Senate Drafting 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Senate Drafting products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Senate Drafting needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Senate Drafting has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Senate Drafting 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate, is just above the industry average. Senate Drafting 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, Senate Drafting is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate | 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Senate Drafting 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.
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. Senate Drafting can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Senate Drafting is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Senate Drafting can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Senate Drafting operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Senate Drafting can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Senate Drafting 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Senate Drafting 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 Senate Drafting has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Senate Drafting to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate case study. Senate Drafting can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Senate Drafting in the consumer business. Now Senate Drafting can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Senate Drafting 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 Senate Drafting to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Senate Drafting 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Senate Drafting 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 Senate Drafting can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Threats The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Senate Drafting 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.
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 Senate Drafting.
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 Senate Drafting in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Senate Drafting 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 The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate .
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. Senate Drafting can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Senate Drafting has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Senate Drafting 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Senate Drafting 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.
Environmental challenges
– Senate Drafting 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. Senate Drafting can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Senate Drafting 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Senate Drafting 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.
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.
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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate, Senate Drafting 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
– Senate Drafting 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 The Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Affordable Care Act (C): Legislative Strategy in the Senate 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 Senate Drafting needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
