The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation
In January 2005 Dr. Mean Chhi Vun, director of the Cambodian National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs (NCHADS), needed to decide how to control the spread of HIV/AIDS and save the lives of thousands of Cambodians who were dying from it each year. In the seven years since Dr. Vun had been appointed director, NCHADS had built an organization that was transparent and efficient, had implemented a nationwide 100 percent condom use program, had established a system that allowed individuals to voluntarily seek confidential counseling and testing, and had instituted a set of guidelines and procedures for staff at health facilities to refer HIV-positive patients to treatment clinics and link them with NGOs providing financial and psychosocial support. Now, however, Dr. Vun faced decisions about three initiatives that were critical to expanding care and treatment programs in his country. First, he needed to decide how to quickly and cost-effectively improve the national HIV/AIDS laboratory support infrastructure. Second, Dr. Vun needed to improve logistics and supply management in order to get the best prices and ensure patients had access to life-saving medicines. Finally, he needed to figure out how to provide sustainable care and treatment to the thousands of Cambodian children living with HIV/AIDS.
Authors :: Robert C. Wolcott, Alex Hurd, Stephanie Wolcott
Topics :: Leadership & Managing People
Tags :: Health, Leadership, Policy, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation" written by Robert C. Wolcott, Alex Hurd, Stephanie Wolcott includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vun Hiv facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Leadership, Policy, Social enterprise, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vun Hiv, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vun Hiv 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vun Hiv
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 Vun Hiv
Strengths The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vun Hiv in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Vun Hiv 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 Vun Hiv in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Vun Hiv 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 Vun Hiv is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vun Hiv in the sector have low bargaining power. The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vun Hiv to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Vun Hiv is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vun Hiv 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.
High brand equity
– Vun Hiv has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vun Hiv to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vun Hiv is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vun Hiv has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vun Hiv has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vun Hiv 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vun Hiv 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vun Hiv in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation, it seems that the employees of Vun Hiv don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Vun Hiv 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vun Hiv is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 Vun Hiv products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vun Hiv needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation, is just above the industry average. Vun Hiv 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 Vun Hiv, firm in the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vun Hiv 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Vun Hiv 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert C. Wolcott, Alex Hurd, Stephanie Wolcott suggests that, Vun Hiv 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation HBR case study mentions - Vun Hiv 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation, 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.
Opportunities The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation | 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vun Hiv 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Vun Hiv can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vun Hiv 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vun Hiv to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vun Hiv 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vun Hiv 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, The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vun Hiv is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vun Hiv can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vun Hiv operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Vun Hiv can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vun Hiv 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Vun Hiv can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Vun Hiv in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Vun Hiv can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Vun Hiv 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.
Threats The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vun Hiv is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vun Hiv 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vun Hiv 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vun Hiv 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vun Hiv has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vun Hiv 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.
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 Vun Hiv in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Vun Hiv 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. Vun Hiv can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Vun Hiv 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vun Hiv 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.
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. Vun Hiv needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Vun Hiv business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation, Vun Hiv 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 The Cambodian National HIV/AIDS Program: Successful Scale-Up through Innovation 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 Vun Hiv needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
