The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services
On November 15, 1996, Stanford's Board of Trustees and the University of California (UC) Board of Regents voted to merge their two academic medical centers; on November 1, 1997, the merger became official. However, less than two years later, in October 1999, the merger came to an abrupt end. Was the merger an ill-conceived "snakebit venture" or a reasonable response to the environmental and economic pressures of the time that fell apart in its execution? Would the same ills have befallen Stanford and UCSF regardless of the merger?
Swot Analysis of "The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services" written by Susan Madden, Nancy M. Kane includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Merger Ucsf facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture, Project management, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, 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%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Merger Ucsf, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Merger Ucsf 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Merger Ucsf
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 Merger Ucsf
Strengths The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Merger Ucsf in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Merger Ucsf in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Merger Ucsf to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Merger Ucsf to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Merger Ucsf is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Merger Ucsf has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Merger Ucsf in the sector have low bargaining power. The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Merger Ucsf to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Merger Ucsf has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Merger Ucsf to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Merger Ucsf 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 Susan Madden, Nancy M. Kane 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Merger Ucsf is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Merger Ucsf 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Merger Ucsf 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Merger Ucsf 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 Merger Ucsf 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 Merger Ucsf has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Merger Ucsf is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Merger Ucsf needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Merger Ucsf to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Merger Ucsf is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Merger Ucsf, firm in the HBR case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Merger Ucsf products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Merger Ucsf needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Merger Ucsf 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. Merger Ucsf 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services, is just above the industry average. Merger Ucsf needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Merger Ucsf is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Merger Ucsf 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.
Opportunities The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services | 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Merger Ucsf 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Merger Ucsf can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Merger Ucsf operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Merger Ucsf 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.
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. Merger Ucsf 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. Merger Ucsf 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Merger Ucsf is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Merger Ucsf has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Merger Ucsf to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services case study. Merger Ucsf can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Merger Ucsf 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Merger Ucsf 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.
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. Merger Ucsf can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Merger Ucsf 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.
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 Merger Ucsf in the consumer business. Now Merger Ucsf can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Merger Ucsf can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Merger Ucsf 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 Merger Ucsf to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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. Merger Ucsf can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Merger Ucsf 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.
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 Merger Ucsf business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Merger Ucsf with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services, Merger Ucsf 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
– Merger Ucsf has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Merger Ucsf 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Merger Ucsf is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Merger Ucsf 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.
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. Merger Ucsf needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Merger Ucsf 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services .
Environmental challenges
– Merger Ucsf 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. Merger Ucsf can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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 Merger Ucsf.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 The Merger of UCSF Medical Center and Stanford Health Services 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 Merger Ucsf needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.