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 - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, 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 -
High brand equity
– Beirut Patient has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Beirut Patient to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Beirut Patient to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Beirut Patient to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Beirut Patient 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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.
Learning organization
- Beirut Patient 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 Beirut Patient is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Beirut Patient in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Beirut Patient is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Beirut Patient 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Beirut Patient 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.
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.
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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, is just above the industry average. Beirut Patient 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Beirut Patient, firm in the HBR case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Beirut Patient is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Beirut Patient 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.
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 -
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 Beirut Patient 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Beirut Patient can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Beirut Patient 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Beirut Patient can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beirut Patient 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, American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 -
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 .
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.
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.
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 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study American University of Beirut Medical Center: Patient Transport, Beirut Patient may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Beirut Patient 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Beirut Patient 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
