Global Health Partner: Obesity Care SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Global Health Partner: Obesity Care
Global Health Partner was founded in 2006 as a privately owned health care provider in Sweden serving both public and private paying patients. In contrast to most providers in the country, GHP organized around specific service lines where it saw the potential to provide the most value. This case details the GHP approach to both Spine Care and Obesity Care demonstrating the power of specialization for quality improvement as a basis for competitive advantage. Students will examine the organization of integrated multidisciplinary care, the impact of volume on learning and efficiency , and the importance of demonstrating quality through outcomes reporting. The case also provides a window into the Swedish Health Care System.
Authors :: Michael E. Porter, Zayed M. Yasin, Jennifer F. Baron
Swot Analysis of "Global Health Partner: Obesity Care" written by Michael E. Porter, Zayed M. Yasin, Jennifer F. Baron includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Care Ghp facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Organizational culture and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Global Health Partner: Obesity Care casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Global Health Partner: Obesity Care
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Care Ghp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Care Ghp 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Care Ghp
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 Care Ghp
Strengths Global Health Partner: Obesity Care | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Care Ghp in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Care Ghp 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 Michael E. Porter, Zayed M. Yasin, Jennifer F. Baron 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Care Ghp 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 Care Ghp in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Care Ghp in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Care Ghp in the sector have low bargaining power. Global Health Partner: Obesity Care has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Care Ghp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Global Health Partner: Obesity Care firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Care Ghp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Care Ghp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Care Ghp is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Care Ghp is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Care Ghp 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Care Ghp 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Care Ghp 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Care Ghp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Care Ghp 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.
Weaknesses Global Health Partner: Obesity Care | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Global Health Partner: Obesity Care are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Care Ghp, firm in the HBR case study Global Health Partner: Obesity Care needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Care Ghp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Global Health Partner: Obesity Care HBR case study mentions - Care Ghp 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Care Ghp 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 - Global Health Partner: Obesity Care should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Care Ghp has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Care Ghp 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. Care Ghp 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Care Ghp is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Care Ghp needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Care Ghp to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Care Ghp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Global Health Partner: Obesity Care, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Care Ghp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Care Ghp 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care, in the dynamic environment Care Ghp has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Care Ghp has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Care Ghp 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.
Opportunities Global Health Partner: Obesity Care | 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care are -
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. Care Ghp 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
– Care Ghp 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Care Ghp 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 Care Ghp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Care Ghp in the consumer business. Now Care Ghp 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 Care Ghp 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 Care Ghp has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Care Ghp to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Global Health Partner: Obesity Care case study. Care Ghp can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Care Ghp 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Care Ghp 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Care Ghp 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Care Ghp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Care Ghp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Care Ghp 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Care Ghp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Care Ghp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Care Ghp 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.
Threats Global Health Partner: Obesity Care External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Global Health Partner: Obesity Care are -
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. Care Ghp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Care Ghp.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Care Ghp 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care .
Environmental challenges
– Care Ghp 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. Care Ghp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of Care Ghp
– 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 Care Ghp.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Care Ghp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Care Ghp 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Care Ghp 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Care Ghp is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Care Ghp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Care Ghp 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Care Ghp 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Global Health Partner: Obesity Care 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 Care Ghp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
