The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement
In late 2008, government officials in Summit County, Ohio began to discuss the possibility of combining the county's three public health districts. These early discussions set the stage for more than two years of negotiations that eventually led to the consolidation of the health departments in late 2010 and early 2011. This case tells the story of why and how officials in Summit County combined their public health districts and includes an epilogue that describes the consolidated agency's first year of operations. Case number 1987.1
Swot Analysis of "The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement" written by David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Summit County facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Managing organizations, Operations management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Summit County, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Summit County
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Summit County
Strengths The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Summit County in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Summit County is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Summit County has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Summit County 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 Summit County is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Summit County
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Summit County does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Summit County in the sector have low bargaining power. The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Summit County to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Summit County has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Summit County to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Summit County is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Summit County to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Summit County to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Summit County is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Summit County is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Summit County is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement, it seems that the employees of Summit County 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 Summit County products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Summit County 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 Summit County 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Summit County 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Summit County 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. Summit County 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Summit County is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt suggests that, Summit County 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement HBR case study mentions - Summit County 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Summit County has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement | 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement are -
Manufacturing automation
– Summit County can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Summit County to increase its market reach. Summit County 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.
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. Summit County can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Summit County 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Summit County can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Summit County 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. Summit County 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Summit County 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Summit County to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Summit County 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, The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Summit County 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Summit County 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Summit County has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Summit County to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement case study. Summit County can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Summit County 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Summit County has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Summit County needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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. Summit County 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Summit County 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Summit County 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement .
Increasing wage structure of Summit County
– 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 Summit County.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Summit County in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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
– Summit County 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 Global Business industry regulations.
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 Summit County business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Summit County 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. Summit County can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Summit County is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 The Consolidation of the Health Departments in Summit County, Ohio Epilogue Supplement 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 Summit County needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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