Case Study Description of salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico
In May 2013 the co-founders and co-CEOs of salaUno, Javier Okhuysen and Carlos Orellana, were encouraged by the results of their fledgling start-up. salaUno was founded as a for-profit enterprise in order to have the capital needed for rapid growth and to fulfill its mission of Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico. salaUno had grown from doing 75 cataract surgeries in its first month of operation to a high of 388 surgeries 21 months later. This case explores the challenges in scaling up a healthcare venture within a developing country.
Authors :: Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia Cuellar, Valeria Moy
Swot Analysis of "salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico" written by Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia Cuellar, Valeria Moy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Salauno Needless facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Government, Health, Organizational culture and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Salauno Needless, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Salauno Needless 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Salauno Needless
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 Salauno Needless
Strengths salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Salauno Needless in salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Salauno Needless 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Salauno Needless 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Salauno Needless has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Salauno Needless to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Salauno Needless in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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.
Training and development
– Salauno Needless has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Salauno Needless is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Salauno Needless 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, Regina Garcia Cuellar, Valeria Moy 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
– salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Salauno Needless to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Salauno Needless to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Salauno Needless has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Salauno Needless 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Salauno Needless in the sector have low bargaining power. salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Salauno Needless to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Salauno Needless is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Salauno Needless 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico HBR case study mentions - Salauno Needless 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Salauno Needless is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 Salauno Needless products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Salauno Needless needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Salauno Needless is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Salauno Needless needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Salauno Needless to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico, in the dynamic environment Salauno Needless has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Salauno Needless has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Salauno Needless is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Salauno Needless 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.
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 Salauno Needless supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Salauno Needless vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Salauno Needless 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Salauno Needless, firm in the HBR case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico | 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Salauno Needless 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 Salauno Needless to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Salauno Needless in the consumer business. Now Salauno Needless can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Salauno Needless can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Salauno Needless can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Salauno Needless 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. Salauno Needless 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Salauno Needless 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Salauno Needless 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, Salauno Needless 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, salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Salauno Needless to increase its market reach. Salauno Needless 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Salauno Needless is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Salauno Needless 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Salauno Needless 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Salauno Needless can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Salauno Needless 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.
Threats salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico are -
Environmental challenges
– Salauno Needless 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. Salauno Needless can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Salauno Needless 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico, Salauno Needless may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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. Salauno Needless 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Salauno Needless with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Salauno Needless 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Salauno Needless 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Salauno Needless 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Salauno Needless is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Salauno Needless 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
– Salauno Needless has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Salauno Needless 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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Salauno Needless in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico 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 Salauno Needless needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
