CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering
Provides a longitudinal view of business reengineering at CIGNA Corp., a leading provider of insurance and related financial services throughout the United States and the world. CIGNA has been practicing business reengineering since 1989, completing over 20 projects. The case illustrates a number of reengineering projects. Also highlights the different forms and waves of business reengineering that the company has experienced.
Swot Analysis of "CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering" written by Donna B. Stoddard, Sirkka Jarvenpaa includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Reengineering Cigna facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing,
technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Reengineering Cigna, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Reengineering Cigna
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 Reengineering Cigna
Strengths CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Reengineering Cigna in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Reengineering Cigna is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Reengineering Cigna 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 Reengineering Cigna in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Reengineering Cigna 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 Reengineering Cigna is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Reengineering Cigna digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Reengineering Cigna 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Reengineering Cigna 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 Donna B. Stoddard, Sirkka Jarvenpaa 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Reengineering Cigna in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Reengineering Cigna is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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.
Organizational Resilience of Reengineering Cigna
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Reengineering Cigna does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Reengineering Cigna has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Reengineering Cigna to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Reengineering Cigna 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Reengineering Cigna 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Reengineering Cigna 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Reengineering Cigna 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Reengineering Cigna is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 Reengineering Cigna 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Reengineering Cigna 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 Reengineering Cigna 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 - CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering, it seems that the employees of Reengineering Cigna don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Donna B. Stoddard, Sirkka Jarvenpaa suggests that, Reengineering Cigna is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Reengineering Cigna is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Reengineering Cigna needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Reengineering Cigna to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering | 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering are -
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. Reengineering Cigna can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Reengineering Cigna 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Reengineering Cigna can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Reengineering Cigna is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Reengineering Cigna to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Reengineering Cigna 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 Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Reengineering Cigna 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. Reengineering Cigna 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Reengineering Cigna has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Reengineering Cigna to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering case study. Reengineering Cigna can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Reengineering Cigna can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Reengineering Cigna 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, CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Reengineering Cigna 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 Reengineering Cigna to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Reengineering Cigna can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering are -
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 Reengineering Cigna business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Reengineering Cigna needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Reengineering Cigna has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Reengineering Cigna 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Reengineering Cigna 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.
Increasing wage structure of Reengineering Cigna
– 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 Reengineering Cigna.
Environmental challenges
– Reengineering Cigna 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. Reengineering Cigna can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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 Reengineering Cigna.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Reengineering Cigna 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, Reengineering Cigna 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering .
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. Reengineering Cigna can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Reengineering Cigna in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Reengineering Cigna 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Reengineering Cigna 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 CIGNA Corp., Inc.: Managing and Institutionalizing Business Reengineering 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 Reengineering Cigna needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
