Case Study Description of Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C)
For nearly three months, John Carter, a vascular surgeon by training, had been studying a variety of clinical processes at Deaconess-Glover Hospital in Needham, Mass. Carter was looking for an opportunity to test the applicability of Toyota Production System "Rules-in-Use" in the health care context. After several weeks of increasing focus, he had found a particular process--medication administration--to test his ideas. He had just suggested to John Dalton and Julie Bonenfant, the hospital's president and vice president, that they create a learning unit or model line within one of the nursing wards to begin conducting experiments. Dalton and Bonenfant received his modest proposal negatively. They complained that his proposal seemed remarkably unambitious, yet, paradoxically, they complained that creating a dedicated learning unit within the larger nursing ward would be infeasible. Carter struggled to explain how they could react simultaneously with such seemingly contradictory sentiments.
Swot Analysis of "Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C)" written by Steven J. Spear includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carter Bonenfant facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Health, Organizational structure, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carter Bonenfant, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carter Bonenfant 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carter Bonenfant
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 Carter Bonenfant
Strengths Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carter Bonenfant in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Carter Bonenfant is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Carter Bonenfant has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Carter Bonenfant 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Carter Bonenfant
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Carter Bonenfant does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Carter Bonenfant is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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.
Learning organization
- Carter Bonenfant 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 Carter Bonenfant is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Carter Bonenfant in the sector have low bargaining power. Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carter Bonenfant to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Carter Bonenfant 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Carter Bonenfant 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 Steven J. Spear 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.
Training and development
– Carter Bonenfant has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carter Bonenfant 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Carter Bonenfant 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) HBR case study mentions - Carter Bonenfant 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Carter Bonenfant 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 - Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Carter Bonenfant, firm in the HBR case study Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Carter Bonenfant supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Carter Bonenfant vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carter Bonenfant is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Carter Bonenfant 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Carter Bonenfant is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Carter Bonenfant 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. Carter Bonenfant 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Carter Bonenfant has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Steven J. Spear suggests that, Carter Bonenfant 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.
Opportunities Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) | 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Carter Bonenfant can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carter Bonenfant can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carter Bonenfant operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Carter Bonenfant 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Carter Bonenfant to increase its market reach. Carter Bonenfant 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.
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 Carter Bonenfant 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Carter Bonenfant has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Carter Bonenfant to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) case study. Carter Bonenfant can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Carter Bonenfant 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Carter Bonenfant is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carter Bonenfant 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Carter Bonenfant in the consumer business. Now Carter Bonenfant can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carter Bonenfant can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) are -
Regulatory challenges
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Carter Bonenfant has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Carter Bonenfant 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Carter Bonenfant 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.
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 Carter Bonenfant in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Carter Bonenfant 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
– Carter Bonenfant 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Carter Bonenfant 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.
Increasing wage structure of Carter Bonenfant
– 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 Carter Bonenfant.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Carter Bonenfant 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) .
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 Carter Bonenfant.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carter Bonenfant is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C) 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 Carter Bonenfant needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
