Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community
In early 2010, Martin Grable, President of the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas (CBCC), was ready to move the first community blood center in North Carolina to a new level. In a strategic planning retreat, he asked the Board of Directors to evaluate seven strategic options and provide its expertise to assist in determining the future direction of the center: Increase provision of specialized blood services by 1. Pooling donors for sickle cell patients, 2. Offering cord blood storage, 3. Developing a therapeutic apheresis/transfusion service or 4. Become a Center that provides a reference lab for other blood centers in the region; 5. Improve blood inventory management software utilization for the region's current hospitals so that CBCC became their sole provider of blood; 6. Expand geographically serving more hospitals and patients; or 7. Re-double efforts to increase donations through additional collection sites, improved marketing, more attention to current donors, and so on. Although all of the alternatives were needed by the community, CBCC did not have unlimited resources. Further, health care reform loomed on the horizon. Clearly, to serve the community, CBCC needed to not only survive, but also thrive in the near term. Which of the alternatives would allow achievement of that goal for the newest FDA-licensed community blood center?
Swot Analysis of "Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community" written by Linda Swayne includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Blood Cbcc facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Marketing, Strategic planning, Strategic thinking and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing,
geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Blood Cbcc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Blood Cbcc 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Blood Cbcc
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 Blood Cbcc
Strengths Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Blood Cbcc in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Blood Cbcc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Blood Cbcc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Blood Cbcc 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 Linda Swayne 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Blood Cbcc 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Blood Cbcc in the sector have low bargaining power. Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Blood Cbcc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Blood Cbcc has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Blood Cbcc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Blood Cbcc 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Blood Cbcc is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Blood Cbcc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Blood Cbcc 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Blood Cbcc 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Blood Cbcc is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Blood Cbcc 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.
Weaknesses Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Blood Cbcc 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Blood Cbcc is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community, is just above the industry average. Blood Cbcc 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, Blood Cbcc is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Blood Cbcc 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Blood Cbcc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community HBR case study mentions - Blood Cbcc 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community, in the dynamic environment Blood Cbcc has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Blood Cbcc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Blood Cbcc 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Blood Cbcc, firm in the HBR case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community | 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Blood Cbcc to increase its market reach. Blood Cbcc 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Blood Cbcc 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.
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. Blood Cbcc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Blood Cbcc 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, Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Blood Cbcc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Blood Cbcc 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Blood Cbcc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Blood Cbcc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Blood Cbcc 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.
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. Blood Cbcc 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. Blood Cbcc 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.
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 Blood Cbcc in the consumer business. Now Blood Cbcc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Blood Cbcc can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Blood Cbcc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Blood Cbcc to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community case study. Blood Cbcc can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Blood Cbcc 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 Blood Cbcc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community, Blood Cbcc 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 .
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. Blood Cbcc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Blood Cbcc 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.
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 Blood Cbcc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Blood Cbcc 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
– Blood Cbcc 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. Blood Cbcc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Blood Cbcc 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.
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 Blood Cbcc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Blood Cbcc is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Blood Cbcc 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Blood Cbcc 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 Blood Cbcc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Community Blood Center of the Carolinas: Building for a Better Community 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 Blood Cbcc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.