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 - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, 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 -
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.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hazard Care 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Hazard Care has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hazard Care to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hazard Care 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.
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hazard Care is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Hazard Care 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 Hazard Care in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hazard Care digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hazard Care 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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.
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 -
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.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hazard Care has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hazard Care 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 - Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hazard Care 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries 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 Hazard Care has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Hazard Care 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, Hazard Care is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential 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.
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.
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 -
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hazard Care 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 Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hazard Care to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hazard Care can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Hazard Care 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hazard Care 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.
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.
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. Hazard Care needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
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 Hazard Care business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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