Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals
Established in 1983, Apollo Hospitals is one of India's largest hospital chains. In 2014, Apollo had 32 hospitals spread across the country. The focus of this case is of the Apollo Hospital at Bangalore. The quality head, Dr. Ananth Rao was worried about the food bill that accounted for 4% of the total cost and wanted to develop a forecasting model to estimate the demand for food and beverages being served to its patients for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Accurate forecasting will help them to minimize the wastage of food resulting in reduction of food bill. Apollo served approximately 120 food items from its kitchen. Dr Rao believed that the demand for food was dependent on the occupancy level (number of in-patients) of the hospital. Moreover, he also expected a short-term trend in the food requirement because patients are likely to order similar food during their course of stay in the hospital - this is because of dietary restrictions as also the fact that people would generally not wish to experiment with food in a hospital environment. The profile of the patients in the hospital is unlikely to vary significantly over a period of time and so it is expected that the food trend will not change much with time.
Swot Analysis of "Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals" written by Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Food Apollo facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Operations management and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Food Apollo, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Food Apollo
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 Food Apollo
Strengths Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Food Apollo in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Food Apollo in the sector have low bargaining power. Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Food Apollo to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Food Apollo has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Food Apollo 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.
Organizational Resilience of Food Apollo
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Food Apollo does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Food Apollo to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Food Apollo to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Food Apollo 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 Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan 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.
Learning organization
- Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Food Apollo 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals - 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
– Food Apollo has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Food Apollo to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Food Apollo 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Food Apollo in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, it seems that the employees of Food Apollo 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, in the dynamic environment Food Apollo has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Food Apollo needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Food Apollo to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sujoy Roychowdhury, Alok Shrivastava, Dinesh Kumar Unnikrishnan suggests that, Food Apollo 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Food Apollo 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Food Apollo is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Food Apollo 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals HBR case study mentions - Food Apollo 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Food Apollo has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, is just above the industry average. Food Apollo 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.
Opportunities Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals | 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Food Apollo 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Food Apollo has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Food Apollo to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals case study. Food Apollo 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, Food Apollo 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Food Apollo 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Food Apollo can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Food Apollo operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Food Apollo 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Food Apollo 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, Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Food Apollo can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Food Apollo 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. Food Apollo 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Food Apollo can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Food Apollo 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 Food Apollo 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.
Threats Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals are -
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 Food Apollo business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Food Apollo is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Food Apollo.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Food Apollo 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Food Apollo 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 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Food Apollo can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals .
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. Food Apollo needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Food Apollo
– 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 Food Apollo.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Food Apollo with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Food Apollo 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. Food Apollo can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Food Apollo 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Food Apollo 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Forecasting Demand for Food at Apollo Hospitals 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 Food Apollo needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.