Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth
In January 2016, the chief executive officer of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals (AGH) was reflecting on the 12-year journey that had led to the establishment of AGH as the strongest pillar of holistic healthcare in Eastern India. AGH brought together the best infrastructure, equipment, people, and systems to serve the people of Eastern India with end-to-end tertiary healthcare. The institution grew with a continuous drive for expanding knowledge, introducing the latest technologies, and building a culture of compassion and care. However, AGH's success had led to a shift in focus, drawing the attention of several leading tertiary care hospitals to the untapped healthcare delivery potential in Eastern India. This shift meant increased competition for AGH and higher expectations from its customers. AGH wanted to maintain its leadership position and better understand the organization's future challenges and focus areas. Which business model would best serve the people of India: expanding the current location or launching a multi-location facility? How could AGH maintain its current high level of recognition, expertise, and availability? The authors are affiliated with Institute for Competitiveness.
Swot Analysis of "Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth" written by Sandeep Goyal, Amit Kapoor includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Agh Gleneagles facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Agh Gleneagles, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Agh Gleneagles 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Agh Gleneagles
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 Agh Gleneagles
Strengths Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Agh Gleneagles in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Agh Gleneagles
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Agh Gleneagles does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Agh Gleneagles to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Agh Gleneagles to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Agh Gleneagles 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 Sandeep Goyal, Amit Kapoor 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)
– Agh Gleneagles 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth - 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 recruit top talent
– Agh Gleneagles is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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
– Agh Gleneagles has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Agh Gleneagles 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Agh Gleneagles 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.
Training and development
– Agh Gleneagles has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Agh Gleneagles 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Agh Gleneagles is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Agh Gleneagles is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Agh Gleneagles has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Agh Gleneagles to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Agh Gleneagles is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Agh Gleneagles 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Agh Gleneagles 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Agh Gleneagles 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Agh Gleneagles 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Agh Gleneagles is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Agh Gleneagles, firm in the HBR case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth, 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth, it seems that the employees of Agh Gleneagles 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Agh Gleneagles 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth, is just above the industry average. Agh Gleneagles 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth HBR case study mentions - Agh Gleneagles 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth | 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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. Agh Gleneagles 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. Agh Gleneagles 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Agh Gleneagles 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Agh Gleneagles to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Developing new processes and practices
– Agh Gleneagles 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Agh Gleneagles 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Agh Gleneagles 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, Agh Gleneagles is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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.
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. Agh Gleneagles can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Agh Gleneagles can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Agh Gleneagles 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 Agh Gleneagles 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 Agh Gleneagles to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Agh Gleneagles 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.
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. Agh Gleneagles can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth are -
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 Agh Gleneagles.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Agh Gleneagles has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Agh Gleneagles 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Agh Gleneagles is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Agh Gleneagles high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Agh Gleneagles 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Agh Gleneagles 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth .
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Agh Gleneagles with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Agh Gleneagles can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Agh Gleneagles 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. Agh Gleneagles can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth, Agh Gleneagles 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Agh Gleneagles 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals: The Next Steps for Growth 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 Agh Gleneagles needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.