Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden
Sweden's Highland District County Hospital, similar to a community hospital in the US, undertook a major restructuring to integrate care delivery for medical conditions served by the Department of Medicine. Each subspecialty within the Department would form a single, co-located unit with its own budget that encompassed both inpatient and outpatient care. This case examines the experience of the Highland Gastroenterology Unit, comparing the delivery model for inflammatory bowel disease in 2001 and 2009, before and after the reorganization. The case can be used to examine health care provider strategy, integrated care delivery, and quality measurement. The case also profiles Sweden's single-payer health care system, allowing for a discussion of national health systems and health policy.
Authors :: Michael E. Porter, Jennifer F. Baron, Martin Rejler
Swot Analysis of "Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden" written by Michael E. Porter, Jennifer F. Baron, Martin Rejler includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Highland Care facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Organizational structure, Strategy execution and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Highland Care, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Highland Care 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Highland Care
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 Highland Care
Strengths Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Highland Care in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Highland Care
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Highland Care does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Highland Care is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Highland Care in the sector have low bargaining power. Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Highland Care to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Highland Care 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Highland Care has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Highland Care 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Highland Care is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Highland Care has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Highland Care 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Highland Care is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Highland Care are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Highland Care digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Highland Care 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Highland Care 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden are -
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 Highland Care supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Highland Care vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland Care 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Highland Care is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Highland Care 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 - Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Highland Care is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Highland Care needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Highland Care to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael E. Porter, Jennifer F. Baron, Martin Rejler suggests that, Highland Care is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden, is just above the industry average. Highland Care 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Highland Care 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 Highland Care 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Highland Care 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden, it seems that the employees of Highland Care 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.
Opportunities Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden | 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Highland Care 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Highland Care 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.
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. Highland Care 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. Highland Care 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Highland Care can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Highland Care operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Highland Care can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Highland Care is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Highland Care 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Highland Care to increase its market reach. Highland Care 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Highland Care 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, Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Highland Care 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.
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. Highland Care can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Highland Care can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Highland Care 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 Highland Care to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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. Highland Care can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Highland Care business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Highland Care has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Highland Care 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 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. Highland Care 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 Highland Care in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Highland Care 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.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Highland Care will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing wage structure of Highland Care
– 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 Highland Care.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Highland Care 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Highland Care 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Highland Care 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden, Highland Care 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Highland Care 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland District County Hospital: Gastroenterology Care in Sweden 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 Highland Care needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
