American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport
The patient affairs coordinator is concerned about the rising number of complaints regarding the level of services offered by the transportation teams in the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The center's management team is determined to create an exemplary patient transportation service at AUBMC and consequently launches an investigation supported by a full-scale study to determine better ways of re-engineering these processes. The coordinator must consider the factors that contribute to patient and staff complaints as well as the types of data and tests required to provide evidence-based solutions for patient transportation in the hospital. Lina Daouk-Oyry is affiliated with American University of Beirut. Dania Baba is affiliated with American University of Beirut Medical Center. Line Reda is affiliated with American University of Beirut Medical Center. Neil Yorke-Smith is affiliated with American University of Beirut.
Authors :: Lina Daouk-Oyry, Dania Baba, Line Reda, Neil Yorke-Smith
Swot Analysis of "American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport" written by Lina Daouk-Oyry, Dania Baba, Line Reda, Neil Yorke-Smith includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Beirut Patient facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beirut Patient, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beirut Patient 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beirut Patient
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 Beirut Patient
Strengths American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Beirut Patient in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Beirut Patient is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Beirut Patient digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Beirut Patient 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Beirut Patient 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Beirut Patient in the sector have low bargaining power. American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beirut Patient to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Beirut Patient is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Beirut Patient 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 Lina Daouk-Oyry, Dania Baba, Line Reda, Neil Yorke-Smith 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 Beirut Patient
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Beirut Patient does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Beirut Patient has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Beirut Patient 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Beirut Patient 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Beirut Patient has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Beirut Patient 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 Beirut Patient in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, in the dynamic environment Beirut Patient has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Beirut Patient has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Beirut Patient 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, it seems that the employees of Beirut Patient 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Beirut Patient 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport HBR case study mentions - Beirut Patient takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beirut Patient is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Beirut Patient is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Beirut Patient needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Beirut Patient to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 Beirut Patient has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Beirut Patient 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. Beirut Patient 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Beirut Patient products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Beirut Patient needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport | 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport are -
Loyalty marketing
– Beirut Patient 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Beirut Patient 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Beirut Patient to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Beirut Patient 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 Global Business segment.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Beirut Patient to increase its market reach. Beirut Patient 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Beirut Patient 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 Beirut Patient 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. Beirut Patient can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Beirut Patient has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Beirut Patient to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport case study. Beirut Patient can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Beirut Patient in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beirut Patient can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beirut Patient operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beirut Patient is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Beirut Patient can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Beirut Patient can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Beirut Patient in the consumer business. Now Beirut Patient can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Beirut Patient 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.
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 Beirut Patient business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Beirut Patient has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Beirut Patient 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.
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 wage structure of Beirut Patient
– 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 Beirut Patient.
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. Beirut Patient 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.
Environmental challenges
– Beirut Patient 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. Beirut Patient can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Beirut Patient 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Beirut Patient with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beirut Patient 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport .
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 Beirut Patient.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Beirut Patient 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Beirut Patient can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport 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 Beirut Patient needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.