Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries
A recent report from the Institute of Medicine has focused attention anew on the incidence of medical errors in the health care industry. While there is a relatively large body of research on how organizations can operate in a highly reliable manner, and thus avoid such errors, little of that work has been done in the health care field. This article discusses the ways in which the health care industry has failed to meet systematically the standards for achieving high reliability, based in part on two existing theories about the management of high-hazard environments--High Reliability Organization Theory (HROT) and Normal Accidents Theory (NAT).
Swot Analysis of "Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries" written by David M. Gaba includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hazard Care facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Risk management and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hazard Care, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hazard Care 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hazard Care
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 Hazard Care
Strengths Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hazard Care in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hazard Care 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Hazard Care is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Hazard Care has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hazard Care 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hazard Care to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hazard Care to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hazard Care has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hazard Care 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hazard Care is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hazard Care is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hazard Care in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hazard Care in the sector have low bargaining power. Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hazard Care to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Hazard Care 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 David M. Gaba 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.
Organizational Resilience of Hazard Care
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hazard Care does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries are -
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 Hazard Care supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hazard Care vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hazard Care 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Hazard Care 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, is just above the industry average. Hazard Care 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David M. Gaba suggests that, Hazard Care 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hazard Care products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hazard Care needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, in the dynamic environment Hazard Care has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hazard Care has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hazard Care is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hazard Care has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries HBR case study mentions - Hazard Care 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hazard Care is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Hazard Care needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hazard Care to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries | 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hazard Care to increase its market reach. Hazard Care 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.
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. Hazard Care 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. Hazard Care 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.
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 Hazard Care 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hazard Care 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hazard Care 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.
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. Hazard Care 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 Hazard Care 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hazard Care 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, Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, 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 Hazard Care in the consumer business. Now Hazard Care can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hazard Care has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hazard Care to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries case study. Hazard Care can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hazard Care 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hazard Care 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Hazard Care can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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.
Threats Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries are -
Environmental challenges
– Hazard Care 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. Hazard Care can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hazard Care with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hazard Care 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.
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 Hazard Care.
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. Hazard Care 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.
Increasing wage structure of Hazard Care
– 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 Hazard Care.
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. Hazard Care can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hazard Care is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hazard Care 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 Hazard Care in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hazard Care has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hazard Care 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Hazard Care needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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