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Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times


Bakari Burns, CEO of the Health Care Center for the Homeless (HCCH), located in Orlando, Florida was faced with the daunting task of rebranding the organization he lead. Burns knew the organization experienced difficulty with recognition and marketplace distinction, primarily due to the public's misperceptions about the relationship between HCCH and the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. An external consulting team offered several recommendations for change, including an amended name and redesign of all marketing materials. This advice and changes in the external environment provided an excellent opportunity to reposition and refocus the organization. Recognizing the need for a new strategy and implementing that strategy were not the same; Burns was not sure how to lead the organization through the change process.

Authors :: Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Change management, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times" written by Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Burns Homeless facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Burns Homeless, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Burns Homeless 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Burns Homeless
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Burns Homeless




Strengths Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Burns Homeless in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times Harvard Business Review case study are -

Successful track record of launching new products

– Burns Homeless has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Burns Homeless 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 switching costs

– The high switching costs that Burns Homeless 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

– Burns Homeless is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Burns Homeless 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Burns Homeless is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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.

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Burns Homeless 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 Burns Homeless in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Analytics focus

– Burns Homeless 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 Mary Conway Dato-on, Eileen Weisenbach Keller 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Burns Homeless 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.

High brand equity

– Burns Homeless has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Burns Homeless to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Learning organization

- Burns Homeless 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 Burns Homeless is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Burns Homeless is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.






Weaknesses Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times are -

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times HBR case study mentions - Burns Homeless 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 star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Burns Homeless has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Burns Homeless 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 - Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Lack of clear differentiation of Burns Homeless products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Burns Homeless needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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 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 Burns Homeless supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Burns Homeless vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Burns Homeless 's lucrative customers.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Burns Homeless is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Burns Homeless needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Burns Homeless to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Burns Homeless 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Burns Homeless 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Burns Homeless 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.




Opportunities Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times | 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Burns Homeless to increase its market reach. Burns Homeless 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.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Burns Homeless to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Burns Homeless can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Burns Homeless 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, Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Burns Homeless 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Burns Homeless to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Burns Homeless can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Manufacturing automation

– Burns Homeless can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Burns Homeless in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Burns Homeless 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. Burns Homeless 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Burns Homeless has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Burns Homeless 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 Sales & Marketing segment.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Burns Homeless has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Burns Homeless to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times case study. Burns Homeless can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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. Burns Homeless can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.




Threats Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Burns Homeless has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Burns Homeless needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times, Burns Homeless may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Burns Homeless 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.

Environmental challenges

– Burns Homeless 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. Burns Homeless can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Burns Homeless 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.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Burns Homeless can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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. Burns Homeless needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Burns Homeless is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Burns Homeless will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Burns Homeless with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Regulatory challenges

– Burns Homeless 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Burns Homeless 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Health Care Center for the Homeless: Changing with the Times 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 Burns Homeless needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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