Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
The case describes an organization's use of the science of improvement to transform their process quality from below average to the top 10% in their industry. The case outlines the protagonist's strategy of developing internal experts who are trained in a common methodology for making improvement and spreading these ideas in their work units.
Swot Analysis of "Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center" written by Amy C. Edmondson, Anita Tucker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Improvement Cincinnati facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Leadership, Managing people, Personnel policies, Product development, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , 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, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Improvement Cincinnati, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Improvement Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Improvement Cincinnati
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 Improvement Cincinnati
Strengths Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Improvement Cincinnati in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Improvement Cincinnati 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 Improvement Cincinnati is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Improvement Cincinnati has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Improvement Cincinnati is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Training and development
– Improvement Cincinnati has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Improvement Cincinnati is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Improvement Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Improvement Cincinnati 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 Improvement Cincinnati 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 Technology & Operations industry
– Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Improvement Cincinnati to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Improvement Cincinnati to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Improvement Cincinnati digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Improvement Cincinnati is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Improvement Cincinnati is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Improvement Cincinnati 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 - Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Amy C. Edmondson, Anita Tucker suggests that, Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Improvement Cincinnati is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in the dynamic environment Improvement Cincinnati has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Improvement Cincinnati has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center HBR case study mentions - Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Improvement Cincinnati is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Improvement Cincinnati has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is just above the industry average. Improvement Cincinnati 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Improvement Cincinnati 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. Improvement Cincinnati 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Improvement Cincinnati 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Improvement Cincinnati has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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. Improvement Cincinnati can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Improvement Cincinnati in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Improvement Cincinnati to increase its market reach. Improvement Cincinnati will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Improvement Cincinnati 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 Technology & Operations segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Improvement Cincinnati is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Improvement Cincinnati can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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.
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. Improvement Cincinnati 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. Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Improvement Cincinnati can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Improvement Cincinnati operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Improvement Cincinnati can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Improvement Cincinnati 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 Improvement Cincinnati 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 Improvement Cincinnati to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are -
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. Improvement Cincinnati needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Improvement Cincinnati in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Improvement Cincinnati can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Improvement Cincinnati demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Improvement Cincinnati business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Increasing wage structure of Improvement Cincinnati
– 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 Improvement Cincinnati.
Environmental challenges
– Improvement Cincinnati 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. Improvement Cincinnati can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Improvement Cincinnati 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 .
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. Improvement Cincinnati 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
– Improvement Cincinnati has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Improvement Cincinnati 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Improvement Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center 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 Improvement Cincinnati needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
