Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine
Margaret McLaughlin has just begun her new appointment as the Dean of Health Professions at the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. As an education leader, her charge is to develop Minnesota's health care workforce for the future. She is approached by members of her nursing faculty, who want her to consider launching their very own nurse-practitioner-run clinic. Typically, clinics have been run and directed by physicians. The faculty have suggested four options for the kind of clinic they might run, and McLaughlin must advise them on a course of action. Teaching Purpose: Students will select the kind of nurse practitioner clinic that would be most appropriate for the College of St. Catherine. The analysis will begin by examining the context in which the college is operating and discuss the major criteria that need to be used in making this decision. They will consider the move "up-market" for nurse practitioners' over time, as they have taken on more responsibilities similar in nature to those of a physician. Specifically, students will discuss how nurse practitioners' work has changed over time and the regulations, technological innovations, patient needs, and infrastructure developments that have encouraged this change. Finally, students will debate whether it would make sense to launch their own clinic. They will choose among four options for how the clinic might look, whom it would serve, and how it would be organized.
Swot Analysis of "Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine" written by Clayton M. Christensen, Sarah Thorp includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nurse Clinic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation, Leadership, Organizational culture, Social enterprise, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, increasing energy prices,
there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nurse Clinic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nurse Clinic 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nurse Clinic
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Nurse Clinic
Strengths Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nurse Clinic in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nurse Clinic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nurse Clinic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nurse Clinic in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nurse Clinic 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
– Nurse Clinic is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nurse Clinic in the sector have low bargaining power. Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nurse Clinic to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Nurse Clinic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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.
Organizational Resilience of Nurse Clinic
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nurse Clinic does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nurse Clinic 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Nurse Clinic is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Nurse Clinic is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Nurse Clinic 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 Clayton M. Christensen, Sarah Thorp 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nurse Clinic 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nurse Clinic is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Nurse Clinic supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nurse Clinic vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nurse Clinic 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nurse Clinic 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, Nurse Clinic 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nurse Clinic is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine, in the dynamic environment Nurse Clinic has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nurse Clinic has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine HBR case study mentions - Nurse Clinic 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nurse Clinic, firm in the HBR case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nurse Clinic 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 - Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Nurse Clinic 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine | 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nurse Clinic 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Nurse Clinic 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 Nurse Clinic to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Nurse Clinic can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Nurse Clinic 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nurse Clinic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nurse Clinic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine case study. Nurse Clinic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nurse Clinic 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
– Nurse Clinic 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, Nurse Clinic can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nurse Clinic operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nurse Clinic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nurse Clinic 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, Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nurse Clinic 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nurse Clinic 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nurse Clinic to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Nurse Clinic can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Threats Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine are -
Regulatory challenges
– Nurse Clinic 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
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 Nurse Clinic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nurse Clinic 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine .
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. Nurse Clinic 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nurse Clinic has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nurse Clinic needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
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 Nurse Clinic.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Nurse Clinic can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nurse Clinic in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nurse Clinic 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nurse Clinic 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nurse Clinic 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine, Nurse Clinic may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Developing Nurse Practioners at the College of St. Catherine 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 Nurse Clinic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.