The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response
Supplement for case 712480. On the evening of March 11, 2011, Mayama Fumihiro, the Managing Director of Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital knew that it would be a long, cold night. The 103 staff members and 162 patients and families were huddled on the top two floors of the four-story hospital, where they had gone to escape three tsunami waves that had destroyed the first floor and part of the second floor.
Authors :: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Yukiko Sakai, Rebecca Agonafir, Peter Cholewinski
Swot Analysis of "The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response" written by Hirotaka Takeuchi, Yukiko Sakai, Rebecca Agonafir, Peter Cholewinski includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ishinomaki Kouwan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ishinomaki Kouwan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ishinomaki Kouwan
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 Ishinomaki Kouwan
Strengths The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ishinomaki Kouwan in The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Ishinomaki Kouwan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ishinomaki Kouwan in the sector have low bargaining power. The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ishinomaki Kouwan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Ishinomaki Kouwan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ishinomaki Kouwan in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ishinomaki Kouwan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 Hirotaka Takeuchi, Yukiko Sakai, Rebecca Agonafir, Peter Cholewinski can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ishinomaki Kouwan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ishinomaki Kouwan 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. Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Ishinomaki Kouwan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ishinomaki Kouwan to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response, it seems that the employees of Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ishinomaki Kouwan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ishinomaki Kouwan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response | 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response are -
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. Ishinomaki Kouwan 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. Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ishinomaki Kouwan to increase its market reach. Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ishinomaki Kouwan 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
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ishinomaki Kouwan has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ishinomaki Kouwan 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
– Ishinomaki Kouwan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ishinomaki Kouwan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ishinomaki Kouwan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ishinomaki Kouwan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ishinomaki Kouwan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ishinomaki Kouwan is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Ishinomaki Kouwan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Ishinomaki Kouwan in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ishinomaki Kouwan with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Ishinomaki Kouwan.
Increasing wage structure of Ishinomaki Kouwan
– 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan.
Regulatory challenges
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ishinomaki Kouwan 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. Ishinomaki Kouwan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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. Ishinomaki Kouwan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 The Great East Japan Earthquake (C): Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital's Response 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 Ishinomaki Kouwan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.