Case Study Description of Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A)
Bill Hurt, the new CEO of Hillside Hospital, knew that the forecast was grim. The hospital's service volumes and market share were dropping precipitously. The direct causes of the problems were numerous, but an indirect cause-and major barrier to addressing the declines-lay in the poor relationship between Hillside's management and its physicians. To engage the physicians in problem-solving, he considered a consultant's suggestion: turning the clinical planning process over to the physicians, with management involved only at their request. This approach was risky but Bill thought sometimes you got power by giving it up.
Swot Analysis of "Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A)" written by Karen Quigley, Nancy M. Kane includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hillside Physicians facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Supply chain and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hillside Physicians, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hillside Physicians 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hillside Physicians
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hillside Physicians
Strengths Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hillside Physicians in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hillside Physicians 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hillside Physicians 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hillside Physicians in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Hillside Physicians 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 Hillside Physicians is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hillside Physicians 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Hillside Physicians has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hillside Physicians is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Hillside Physicians is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Hillside Physicians 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 Hillside Physicians in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hillside Physicians has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hillside Physicians 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hillside Physicians to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hillside Physicians to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hillside Physicians in the sector have low bargaining power. Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hillside Physicians to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Physicians has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hillside Physicians 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 - Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hillside Physicians 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hillside Physicians 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. Hillside Physicians 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 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 Hillside Physicians supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hillside Physicians vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hillside Physicians 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A), it seems that the employees of Hillside Physicians 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Hillside Physicians needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A), is just above the industry average. Hillside Physicians 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hillside Physicians, firm in the HBR case study Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hillside Physicians products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hillside Physicians needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hillside Physicians 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Hillside Physicians can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hillside Physicians 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hillside Physicians is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Hillside Physicians can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hillside Physicians 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, Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hillside Physicians 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hillside Physicians 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hillside Physicians to increase its market reach. Hillside Physicians 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hillside Physicians has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hillside Physicians to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) case study. Hillside Physicians can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hillside Physicians 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hillside Physicians 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. Hillside Physicians 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hillside Physicians can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A) are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hillside Physicians with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Hillside Physicians business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Hillside Physicians in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Hillside Physicians 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. Hillside Physicians can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hillside Physicians has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hillside Physicians needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hillside Physicians is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part A), Hillside Physicians may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Regulatory challenges
– Hillside Physicians 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hillside Physicians can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hillside Physicians 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hillside Physicians 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.
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. Hillside Physicians 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Hospital: Physician-Led Planning (Part 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 Hillside Physicians needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
