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 household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, 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.
Learning organization
- Hazard Care 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 Hazard Care is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, it seems that the employees of Hazard Care 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hazard Care 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. Hazard Care 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hazard Care, firm in the HBR case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Hazard Care 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 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 -
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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hazard Care to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Hazard Care to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Hazard Care 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
– Hazard Care 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.
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.
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.
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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hazard Care can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hazard Care operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Structural and Organizational Issues in Patient Safety: A Comparison of Health Care to Other High-Hazard Industries, Hazard Care 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 .
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.
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 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hazard Care 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hazard Care 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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