LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India
This case highlights the journey of an organization that was set up in Hyderabad, in southern India, to provide affordable maternal care services to women from low-income urban families. LifeSpring Hospitals grew from a single hospital into a chain of nine hospitals, all in Hyderabad, in only five years. The chief executive officer has spent this initial period trying out new methods, continuously fine-tuning the model and learning from this process of experimentation. As the company seeks to scale the business to 200 hospitals, the chief executive officer must decide whether or not the business model is defined clearly enough to warrant the start of a rapid scaling process. The case is unique because it juxtaposes a commitment to high-quality health care service delivery through processes and protocols with a commitment to making maternal care affordable to low-income urban women. LifeSpring Hospitals tries to achieve these seemingly disparate objectives by attempting to create a financially sustainable business model. Authors S. Ramakrishna Velamuri, Priya Anant, and Monidipa Mukherjee are affiliated with Indian School of Business. Author Wei Zhang is affiliated with CEIBS Health Care Policy Management Center
Swot Analysis of "LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India" written by S. Ramakrishna Velamuri, Wei Zhang, Priya Anant, Monidipa Mukherjee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lifespring Hospitals facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lifespring Hospitals, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lifespring Hospitals 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lifespring Hospitals
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 Lifespring Hospitals
Strengths LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lifespring Hospitals in LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lifespring Hospitals in the sector have low bargaining power. LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lifespring Hospitals to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lifespring Hospitals is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Lifespring Hospitals 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 Lifespring Hospitals in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lifespring Hospitals to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lifespring Hospitals to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lifespring Hospitals in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lifespring Hospitals 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Lifespring Hospitals is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lifespring Hospitals has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lifespring Hospitals 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Lifespring Hospitals has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lifespring Hospitals to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Lifespring Hospitals has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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.
Weaknesses LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lifespring Hospitals is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India, is just above the industry average. Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India, in the dynamic environment Lifespring Hospitals has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lifespring Hospitals has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Lifespring Hospitals products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lifespring Hospitals needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Lifespring Hospitals 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 - LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Lifespring Hospitals, firm in the HBR case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lifespring Hospitals 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. Lifespring Hospitals 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 Lifespring Hospitals has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India | 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lifespring Hospitals has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lifespring Hospitals to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India case study. Lifespring Hospitals can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Lifespring Hospitals can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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.
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 Lifespring Hospitals in the consumer business. Now Lifespring Hospitals can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lifespring Hospitals to increase its market reach. Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Lifespring Hospitals is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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.
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. Lifespring Hospitals can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lifespring Hospitals can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lifespring Hospitals can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lifespring Hospitals can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lifespring Hospitals operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Threats LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India are -
Increasing wage structure of Lifespring Hospitals
– 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 Lifespring Hospitals.
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.
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. Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lifespring Hospitals is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Lifespring Hospitals.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India, Lifespring Hospitals 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lifespring Hospitals has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lifespring Hospitals 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.
Environmental challenges
– Lifespring Hospitals 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. Lifespring Hospitals can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Lifespring Hospitals 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 Lifespring Hospitals with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lifespring Hospitals 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 LifeSpring Hospitals: Delivering Affordable, High-quality Maternal Health Care in India 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 Lifespring Hospitals needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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