Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future
Founded in 1892, Nanjing Gulou Hospital, is one of the earliest western medical hospitals in China. It was founded by Dr. William Edward Macklin, M.D., Disciples (Canada) Mission to China, with the assistance of Prof. Frank Eugene Meigs, the Curch of Christ (USA), and the local Nanjing community. At its early stage of establishment, the hospital took "Love, Kindness and Public Service" as its philosophy and "No prejudice to patients as the first priority", proposed by Macklin, as an aspiration. However, due to the uneven distribution of medical resources, neglect of humanities in China's medical education, among other reasons, Chinese public hospitals showed a lack of human concern over a long period of time. In 2004, the president of Gulou Hospital, Ding Yitao, took humanism as a breakthrough point, and first proposed the missing of honoring the hospital's heritage of humanism and building the best humanistic hospital. At a high level, the strategic transformation is implemented along three dimensions: building a memorial hall to honor the heritage of humanistic spirit of Gulou Hospital, launching an expansion project for the hospital that improves availability and quality of health care, as well as transforming hospital management, operation and performance evaluation that stimulate the cultural consciousness of all employees and create a humanistic hospital. Since Gulou Hospital embarked on the journal to build the best humanistic hospital in China, it has generated positive results in terms of patient attraction and satisfaction level. Gulou Hospital has become an exemplar of modern, humanistic hospital in China and received many awards. However, going forward, the hospital faces mounting challenges. How to further deepening the reform and engage all employees? Will Gulou Hospital's core competency sustain into the future and continues to enable the hospital to gain a strong foothold in the increasingly crowded healthcare market?
Swot Analysis of "Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future" written by Ning Jia, Weiqi Liu, Shanshan Cao includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gulou Hospital facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gulou Hospital, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gulou Hospital 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gulou Hospital
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 Gulou Hospital
Strengths Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gulou Hospital in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Gulou Hospital 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 Gulou Hospital is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Gulou Hospital is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gulou Hospital has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gulou Hospital 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gulou Hospital is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Gulou Hospital 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 Ning Jia, Weiqi Liu, Shanshan Cao can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
High brand equity
– Gulou Hospital has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gulou Hospital to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Gulou Hospital is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gulou Hospital in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gulou Hospital to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gulou Hospital to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gulou Hospital 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gulou Hospital 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)
– Gulou Hospital 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future - 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gulou Hospital 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Gulou Hospital 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Gulou Hospital, firm in the HBR case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gulou Hospital 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Gulou Hospital products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Gulou Hospital needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Gulou Hospital supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gulou Hospital vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Gulou Hospital 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future, it seems that the employees of Gulou Hospital 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future, is just above the industry average. Gulou Hospital 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Gulou Hospital has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Opportunities Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future | 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future are -
Loyalty marketing
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gulou Hospital 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gulou Hospital has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gulou Hospital to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future case study. Gulou Hospital can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Gulou Hospital can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gulou Hospital can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gulou Hospital is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gulou Hospital 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, Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Gulou Hospital in the consumer business. Now Gulou Hospital can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Gulou Hospital 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. Gulou Hospital 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, Gulou Hospital can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gulou Hospital operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Gulou Hospital 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.
Threats Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future are -
Environmental challenges
– Gulou Hospital 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. Gulou Hospital can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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 Gulou Hospital business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gulou Hospital is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. Gulou Hospital can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future, Gulou Hospital 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gulou Hospital 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 wage structure of Gulou Hospital
– 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 Gulou Hospital.
Regulatory challenges
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gulou Hospital 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gulou Hospital has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gulou Hospital 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.
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.
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. Gulou Hospital needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Nanjing Gulou Hospital: Honoring the Heritage and Building the Future 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 Gulou Hospital needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.