Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals
A major teaching hospital in inner-city Richmond seeks to retain its tradition as a public research hospital serving all in need, at the same time it attracts new, fully-insured patients. As a first step, a new top administrator decides to institute a "guest relations" program designed to augment the hospital's culture with aspects of hotel methods. The relatively simple idea proves less than simple to implement, however. Staff members with a commitment to the existing hospital culture are skittish; some even fear that the new policy implies better-insured patients are to receive a better level of care. A complex administrative structure exempts doctors, who report to academic, not administrative overseers, from training programs. Nurses are wary. HKS Case Number 1017.0
Authors :: Phillip Holland, Jerry Michling, Esther Scott
Swot Analysis of "Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals" written by Phillip Holland, Jerry Michling, Esther Scott includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Insured Guest facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Health, Operations management, Policy, Strategic planning, Strategy execution and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Insured Guest, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Insured Guest 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Insured Guest
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 Insured Guest
Strengths Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Insured Guest in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Insured Guest to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Insured Guest to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Insured Guest has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Insured Guest to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Insured Guest 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Insured Guest in the sector have low bargaining power. Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Insured Guest to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Insured Guest has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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.
Analytics focus
– Insured Guest 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 Phillip Holland, Jerry Michling, Esther Scott can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Insured Guest 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 Insured Guest in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Insured Guest has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Insured Guest 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 Insured Guest 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Insured Guest is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Insured Guest in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Insured Guest 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Insured Guest has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, is just above the industry average. Insured Guest 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Insured Guest is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Insured Guest supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Insured Guest vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Insured Guest products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Insured Guest needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Insured Guest 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Insured Guest 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 - Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Insured Guest 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Insured Guest 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. Insured Guest 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Insured Guest is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals | 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Insured Guest has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Insured Guest to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals case study. Insured Guest can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Insured Guest 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 Insured Guest to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Insured Guest can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Insured Guest can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Insured Guest operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Insured Guest 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Insured Guest 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.
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 Insured Guest 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Insured Guest 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 Insured Guest 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. Insured Guest 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. Insured Guest 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Insured Guest 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, Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Insured Guest can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Insured Guest has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Insured Guest 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.
Environmental challenges
– Insured Guest 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. Insured Guest can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Insured Guest has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Insured Guest 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Insured Guest 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Insured Guest 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Insured Guest with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Insured Guest 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Insured Guest 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.
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 Insured Guest in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Insured Guest 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.
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 Insured Guest business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Insured Guest
– 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 Insured Guest.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Insured Guest in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Insured Guest needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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