Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning
In November of 2010, the board of Stanford Hospital and Clinics announced that Amir Dan Rubin, at the time chief operating officer of the UCLA Hospital System, would become the next CEO at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Although by 2010 Stanford hospital had largely recovered from a failed merger with the hospital of the University of California, San Francisco, and was financially stable, Rubin would lead an organization that still faced significant challenges. These included creating a focus on patient care and improving operational performance, especially in the wake of an increasingly competitive health system landscape. Rubin's success depended on obtaining the support of a large existing internal staff as well as the medical center faculty. The faculty reported to the dean of the medical school, not to Rubin. The case describes what Rubin did to transform the culture and operations of Stanford Health Care and, specifically, what he did to build support among the various constituencies so critical to his being successful: the medical school physicians, the board of the hospital, and the colleagues already at Stanford. The case also looks at the next steps that Rubin planned in 2014 for continuing to move the hospital forward and the challenges with which he would need to grapple. The case is useful in classes on leadership, organizational culture and culture change, and in classes on power and influence where outside succession and the task of building internal support is a topic.
Swot Analysis of "Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning" written by Jeffrey Pfeffer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rubin Stanford facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Collaboration, Corporate governance, Leadership, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rubin Stanford, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rubin Stanford 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rubin Stanford
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Rubin Stanford
Strengths Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rubin Stanford in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Rubin Stanford is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Rubin Stanford has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rubin Stanford 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Rubin Stanford digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Rubin Stanford 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.
Training and development
– Rubin Stanford has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Rubin Stanford has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rubin Stanford to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rubin Stanford to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rubin Stanford 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Rubin Stanford has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rubin Stanford to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Rubin Stanford is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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.
Organizational Resilience of Rubin Stanford
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Rubin Stanford does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Rubin Stanford 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 Rubin Stanford is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rubin Stanford has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, in the dynamic environment Rubin Stanford has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Rubin Stanford has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, it seems that the employees of Rubin Stanford 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rubin Stanford is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Rubin Stanford needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rubin Stanford to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Rubin Stanford has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Rubin Stanford has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, is just above the industry average. Rubin Stanford 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Rubin Stanford 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Rubin Stanford 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Rubin Stanford 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.
Opportunities Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning | 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rubin Stanford can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rubin Stanford operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Rubin Stanford 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
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 Rubin Stanford 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.
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 Rubin Stanford in the consumer business. Now Rubin Stanford can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Rubin Stanford 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rubin Stanford 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rubin Stanford to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rubin Stanford has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rubin Stanford to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning case study. Rubin Stanford can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Rubin Stanford can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Rubin Stanford 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Rubin Stanford 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, Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Rubin Stanford 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rubin Stanford 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rubin Stanford can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rubin Stanford 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 Rubin Stanford business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Rubin Stanford.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Rubin Stanford in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rubin Stanford has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rubin Stanford needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rubin Stanford 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning, Rubin Stanford may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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. Rubin Stanford 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 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. Rubin Stanford needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Rubin Stanford is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rubin Stanford with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Rubin Stanford 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. Rubin Stanford can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning 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 Rubin Stanford needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.