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Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals


Established in 1983, Apollo Hospitals is one of India's largest hospital chains. In 2014, Apollo had 32 hospitals spread across the country. The focus of this case is of the Apollo Hospital at Bangalore. The quality head, Dr. Ananth Rao was worried about the food bill that accounted for 4% of the total cost and wanted to develop a forecasting model to estimate the demand for food and beverages being served to its patients for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Accurate forecasting will help them to minimize the wastage of food resulting in reduction of food bill. Apollo served approximately 120 food items from its kitchen. Dr Rao believed that the demand for food was dependent on the occupancy level (number of in-patients) of the hospital. Moreover, he also expected a short-term trend in the food requirement because patients are likely to order similar food during their course of stay in the hospital - this is because of dietary restrictions as also the fact that people would generally not wish to experiment with food in a hospital environment. The profile of the patients in the hospital is unlikely to vary significantly over a period of time and so it is expected that the food trend will not change much with time.

Authors :: Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan

Topics :: Technology & Operations

Tags :: Operations management, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals" written by Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Food Apollo facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Operations management and Technology & Operations.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Food Apollo, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Food Apollo
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 Food Apollo




Strengths Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Food Apollo in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study are -

Organizational Resilience of Food Apollo

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Food Apollo does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Analytics focus

– Food Apollo 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 Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan 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.

Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field

– Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Learning organization

- Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Food Apollo 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Food Apollo is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Food Apollo digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Food Apollo 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

– Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Food Apollo in the sector have low bargaining power. Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Food Apollo to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High brand equity

– Food Apollo has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Food Apollo to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Innovation driven organization

– Food Apollo is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Strong track record of project management

– Food Apollo is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.






Weaknesses Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -

Need for greater diversity

– Food Apollo 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan suggests that, Food Apollo 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, is just above the industry average. Food Apollo 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 strategic competitive environment developments

– As Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals HBR case study mentions - Food Apollo takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Food Apollo 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, 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 harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Food Apollo is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Food Apollo 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Food Apollo 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 - Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

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 Food Apollo supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Food Apollo vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Food Apollo 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.




Opportunities Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -

Loyalty marketing

– Food Apollo 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.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Food Apollo to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

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. Food Apollo can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Food Apollo 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Food Apollo to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Food Apollo 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, Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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. Food Apollo 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. Food Apollo 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Food Apollo 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Food Apollo can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Food Apollo 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Food Apollo 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Food Apollo to increase its market reach. Food Apollo 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.




Threats Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -

Regulatory challenges

– Food Apollo 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.

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. Food Apollo needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo

– 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 Food Apollo.

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 Food Apollo in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Food Apollo has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Food Apollo 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.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

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. Food Apollo 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 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Food Apollo 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Food Apollo is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Food Apollo with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Food Apollo needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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