Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics
Two experienced healthcare leaders that participated in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University worked together to improve the nation's healthcare system through the early stage company Empathetics (an organization that teaches empathy to healthcare professionals and staff to improve the patient experience). With their guidance the company seems to make progress on staffing and funding, but despite Mandato's and McNerney's experience and optimism, the Empathetics team faced a great deal of uncertainty. Do they have the right team in place? Will they successfully raise their next round of funding? Can they penetrate the complex and crowded market and build a thriving business? Can the Empathetic products be perceived and recognized as a pain killer as opposed to a nice to have? How should they align themselves with hospitals and insurance companies? Can Empathetics fundamentally change the healthcare industry and normalize empathy training as an essential part of clinical and administrative training?
Authors :: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone, Brian Hoffstein
Swot Analysis of "Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone, Brian Hoffstein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Empathetics Healthcare facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sales, Strategic planning, Strategy execution and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Empathetics Healthcare, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Empathetics Healthcare
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Empathetics Healthcare
Strengths Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Empathetics Healthcare in Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Empathetics Healthcare has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Empathetics Healthcare in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Empathetics Healthcare has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Empathetics Healthcare to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Empathetics Healthcare to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Empathetics Healthcare to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Empathetics Healthcare is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Empathetics Healthcare 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone, Brian Hoffstein can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Empathetics Healthcare
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Empathetics Healthcare does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics - 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Empathetics Healthcare in the sector have low bargaining power. Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Empathetics Healthcare to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics, is just above the industry average. Empathetics Healthcare 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Empathetics Healthcare supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Empathetics Healthcare vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone, Brian Hoffstein suggests that, Empathetics Healthcare 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
– Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Empathetics Healthcare is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Empathetics Healthcare is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Empathetics Healthcare needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Empathetics Healthcare to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Empathetics Healthcare products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Empathetics Healthcare needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Empathetics Healthcare 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Opportunities Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics | 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Empathetics Healthcare 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 Empathetics Healthcare to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Empathetics Healthcare can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Empathetics Healthcare can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Empathetics Healthcare to increase its market reach. Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Empathetics Healthcare can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Empathetics Healthcare can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Empathetics Healthcare operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Empathetics Healthcare to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Empathetics Healthcare 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. Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Empathetics Healthcare has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Empathetics Healthcare to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics case study. Empathetics Healthcare 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, Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Empathetics Healthcare in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Empathetics Healthcare is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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.
Threats Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics are -
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 Empathetics Healthcare.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Empathetics Healthcare has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Empathetics Healthcare needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
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. Empathetics Healthcare needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Environmental challenges
– Empathetics Healthcare 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. Empathetics Healthcare can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Empathetics Healthcare 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.
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 Empathetics Healthcare business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Empathetics Healthcare 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Empathetics Healthcare with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Empathetics Healthcare can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Empathetics Healthcare 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Empathetics Healthcare 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Joe Mandato, Pete McNerney and Empathetics 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 Empathetics Healthcare needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.