Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?
Kaiser Permanente (KP) is the largest managed care organization in the US with over 10 million members. KP evolved from a pre-payment or capitation model that focuses the organization around the efficiency of care and the health of the population it serves. This financial model is in stark contrast to the fee-for-service payment model for other health care organizations. Given the epidemic of obesity in the US, KP is facing an enormous potential liability from future costs of obesity and diabetes. Given low turnover in health plan membership, how should they respond to this crisis? How should they invest in the health of their covered population, their employees, and the communities they serve? The case details the origins and development of KP.
Authors :: Kevin Schulman, Gregory Leya, Christiana Beveridge
Swot Analysis of "Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?" written by Kevin Schulman, Gregory Leya, Christiana Beveridge includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kp Obesity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kp Obesity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kp Obesity 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kp Obesity
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kp Obesity
Strengths Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kp Obesity in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Kp Obesity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kp Obesity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kp Obesity digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kp Obesity 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kp Obesity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kp Obesity 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Kp Obesity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Kp Obesity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kp Obesity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kp Obesity 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Kp Obesity 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 Kevin Schulman, Gregory Leya, Christiana Beveridge 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kp Obesity 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Kp Obesity 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kp Obesity is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kp Obesity 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? HBR case study mentions - Kp Obesity 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Kp Obesity, firm in the HBR case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kevin Schulman, Gregory Leya, Christiana Beveridge suggests that, Kp Obesity 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?, is just above the industry average. Kp Obesity 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Kp Obesity 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?, it seems that the employees of Kp Obesity 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kp Obesity products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kp Obesity needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kp Obesity 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, Kp Obesity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? | 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kp Obesity in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kp Obesity 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kp Obesity to increase its market reach. Kp Obesity 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kp Obesity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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 Kp Obesity 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 Kp Obesity has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kp Obesity to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? case study. Kp Obesity can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kp Obesity can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kp Obesity operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kp Obesity 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kp Obesity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kp Obesity 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Kp Obesity 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kp Obesity 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. Kp Obesity 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kp Obesity 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, Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?, 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. Kp Obesity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? are -
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kp Obesity 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kp Obesity in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Kp Obesity 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kp Obesity 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kp Obesity 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kp Obesity is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Kp Obesity in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kp Obesity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kp Obesity needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Kp Obesity with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery?, Kp Obesity may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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 Kp Obesity.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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 Obesity Management at Kaiser Permanente: A New Mindset for Healthcare Delivery? 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 Kp Obesity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.