eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.Healthpoint Services sought to address rural India's shortage of quality and affordable healthcare with a multi-service platform that comprised telemedical health clinics called eHealthpoints, clean drinking water, a diagnostic lab, and a pharmacy. Could they convince rural Indians to leapfrog from local healers to telemedicine? And could they convince Investors that their capital Intensive, bundled offering was a high-growth, self-sustaining venture? Healthpoint Services grappled with multiple challenges: changing mind-sets of patients and investors, generating traffic at their eHealthpoints, expanding their product portfolio, and growing within and outside India.
Authors :: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mona Sinha, Elizabeth Vrolyk
Swot Analysis of "eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India" written by Richard G. Hamermesh, Mona Sinha, Elizabeth Vrolyk includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ehealthpoints Rural facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ehealthpoints Rural, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ehealthpoints Rural 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ehealthpoints Rural
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ehealthpoints Rural
Strengths eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ehealthpoints Rural in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Ehealthpoints Rural is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Training and development
– Ehealthpoints Rural has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ehealthpoints Rural digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ehealthpoints Rural 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 Ehealthpoints Rural in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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 Ehealthpoints Rural in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ehealthpoints Rural is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Ehealthpoints Rural is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ehealthpoints Rural in the sector have low bargaining power. eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ehealthpoints Rural to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Ehealthpoints Rural has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ehealthpoints Rural to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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 Richard G. Hamermesh, Mona Sinha, Elizabeth Vrolyk 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ehealthpoints Rural to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ehealthpoints Rural to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India are -
Need for greater diversity
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 Ehealthpoints Rural has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ehealthpoints Rural is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ehealthpoints Rural products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ehealthpoints Rural needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India, in the dynamic environment Ehealthpoints Rural has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ehealthpoints Rural 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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, Richard G. Hamermesh, Mona Sinha, Elizabeth Vrolyk suggests that, Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ehealthpoints Rural, firm in the HBR case study eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ehealthpoints Rural is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
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 Ehealthpoints Rural supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ehealthpoints Rural vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India | 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ehealthpoints Rural has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ehealthpoints Rural to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India case study. Ehealthpoints Rural can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ehealthpoints Rural can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ehealthpoints Rural to increase its market reach. Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ehealthpoints Rural can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ehealthpoints Rural operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ehealthpoints Rural 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, eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ehealthpoints Rural 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 Ehealthpoints Rural to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ehealthpoints Rural 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ehealthpoints Rural in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ehealthpoints Rural 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
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ehealthpoints Rural to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ehealthpoints Rural is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India are -
Increasing wage structure of Ehealthpoints Rural
– 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 Ehealthpoints Rural.
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. Ehealthpoints Rural 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
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ehealthpoints Rural in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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. Ehealthpoints Rural can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ehealthpoints Rural with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ehealthpoints Rural can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Ehealthpoints Rural needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Ehealthpoints Rural.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ehealthpoints Rural 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ehealthpoints Rural 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ehealthpoints Rural has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ehealthpoints Rural needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India 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 Ehealthpoints Rural needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.