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 - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Insured Guest is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Insured Guest digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Insured Guest 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.
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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Insured Guest is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Insured Guest 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 Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Insured Guest
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Insured Guest does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
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 -
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.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Insured Guest 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals HBR case study mentions - Insured Guest 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.
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.
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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Insured Guest 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Insured Guest, firm in the HBR case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, in the dynamic environment Insured Guest has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Insured Guest has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals 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 Insured Guest 's lucrative customers.
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.
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 -
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Insured Guest 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.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Insured Guest can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 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.
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 Insured Guest in the consumer business. Now Insured Guest can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
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.
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.
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. Insured Guest can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Insured Guest has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Changing a Hospital's Culture: The Guest Relations Program at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Insured Guest to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
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.
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 -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Insured Guest is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. Insured Guest can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Insured Guest needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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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