Biodesign for the Underserved SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Biodesign for the Underserved
As director of the California HealthCare Foundation's (CHCF) Innovations for the Underserved program, Margaret Laws' goal was "to reduce barriers to efficient, affordable healthcare services for the underserved." The path to achieving this goal took multiple forms, including improving the availability of specialty care for low-income, uninsured, non-English speaking and rural Californians. Specialty care was an incredibly constrained resource within the healthcare system, even for insured patients. In order to improve access, increasing specialist throughput became paramount; and this could often be achieved through process improvements. But in conversations with faculty from Stanford University's Program in Biodesign (henceforth referred to as Biodesign), Laws became intrigued by the potential of new device technologies to improve throughput and increase capacity. The question was whether the biodesign innovation process taught at Stanford to develop devices for commercially attractive markets could be adapted to focus on the needs of the underserved, and particularly needs related to limited access to specialists. In order to answer that, the faculty from the Biodesign program and CHCF launched a pilot program that would undertake a condensed version of the identification phase of the biodesign innovation process, which included needs finding and needs filtering. This paper explores that project and what was learned.
Authors :: Stefanos Zenios, Nathan T. Blair, Lyn Denend
Swot Analysis of "Biodesign for the Underserved" written by Stefanos Zenios, Nathan T. Blair, Lyn Denend includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Biodesign Underserved facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Biodesign for the Underserved case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Personnel policies and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Biodesign for the Underserved casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Biodesign for the Underserved
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Biodesign for the Underserved case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Biodesign Underserved, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Biodesign for the Underserved case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Biodesign Underserved
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 Biodesign Underserved
Strengths Biodesign for the Underserved | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Biodesign Underserved in Biodesign for the Underserved Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign Underserved in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Biodesign Underserved has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Biodesign Underserved to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Biodesign Underserved is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Biodesign for the Underserved 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Biodesign Underserved has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Biodesign Underserved 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Biodesign for the Underserved 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.
Training and development
– Biodesign Underserved has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Biodesign for the Underserved 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.
Organizational Resilience of Biodesign Underserved
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Biodesign Underserved does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Biodesign Underserved is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Biodesign Underserved 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Biodesign Underserved digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Biodesign Underserved 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.
Weaknesses Biodesign for the Underserved | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Biodesign for the Underserved are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Biodesign Underserved 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Biodesign for the Underserved, in the dynamic environment Biodesign Underserved has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Biodesign Underserved has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Biodesign Underserved is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Biodesign for the Underserved can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Biodesign Underserved 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 - Biodesign for the Underserved should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Biodesign for the Underserved, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Biodesign Underserved 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Biodesign Underserved 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, Biodesign Underserved 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. Biodesign Underserved 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign Underserved 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Biodesign Underserved is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Biodesign Underserved needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Biodesign Underserved to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Biodesign for the Underserved HBR case study mentions - Biodesign Underserved 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.
Opportunities Biodesign for the Underserved | 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 Biodesign for the Underserved are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Biodesign Underserved 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Biodesign Underserved can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Biodesign for the Underserved 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Biodesign Underserved can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Biodesign Underserved operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution 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. Biodesign Underserved can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Biodesign Underserved 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.
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. Biodesign Underserved can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Biodesign Underserved 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, Biodesign Underserved is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Biodesign for the Underserved 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Biodesign Underserved 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, Biodesign for the Underserved, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Biodesign Underserved in the consumer business. Now Biodesign Underserved can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Biodesign Underserved has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Biodesign Underserved to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Biodesign for the Underserved case study. Biodesign Underserved can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Biodesign Underserved can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign Underserved to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Biodesign for the Underserved External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Biodesign for the Underserved are -
Regulatory challenges
– Biodesign Underserved 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Biodesign Underserved with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Biodesign Underserved
– 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 Biodesign Underserved.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Biodesign Underserved 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.
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. Biodesign Underserved can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Biodesign Underserved business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Biodesign for the Underserved, Biodesign Underserved 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Biodesign Underserved has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Biodesign Underserved 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Biodesign Underserved in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Biodesign Underserved.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Biodesign Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign for the Underserved 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 Biodesign Underserved needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.