Swot Analysis of "Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B)" written by Anne Snowdon, Alexander Smith, Andrew Scarffe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that W15088 Niagara facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Public relations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the W15088 Niagara, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of W15088 Niagara
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 W15088 Niagara
Strengths Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of W15088 Niagara in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– W15088 Niagara is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 W15088 Niagara in the sector have low bargaining power. Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps W15088 Niagara to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– W15088 Niagara is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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.
Strong track record of project management
– W15088 Niagara is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– W15088 Niagara 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 W15088 Niagara in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled W15088 Niagara to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped W15088 Niagara to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) - 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that W15088 Niagara 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.
High brand equity
– W15088 Niagara has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled W15088 Niagara to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the W15088 Niagara 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.
Weaknesses Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 W15088 Niagara 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) HBR case study mentions - W15088 Niagara 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), in the dynamic environment W15088 Niagara has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, W15088 Niagara 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 W15088 Niagara has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at W15088 Niagara has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), it seems that the employees of W15088 Niagara 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of W15088 Niagara, firm in the HBR case study Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 W15088 Niagara supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left W15088 Niagara vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of W15088 Niagara products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, W15088 Niagara needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) | 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) are -
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help W15088 Niagara 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help W15088 Niagara to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, W15088 Niagara 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at W15088 Niagara 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for W15088 Niagara 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.
Manufacturing automation
– W15088 Niagara 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, W15088 Niagara 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, Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), 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 W15088 Niagara 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 W15088 Niagara to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– W15088 Niagara 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of W15088 Niagara has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help W15088 Niagara to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) case study. W15088 Niagara 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. W15088 Niagara can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– W15088 Niagara 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help W15088 Niagara to increase its market reach. W15088 Niagara 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.
Threats Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. W15088 Niagara can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents W15088 Niagara with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– W15088 Niagara 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for W15088 Niagara 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
– W15088 Niagara has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, W15088 Niagara 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.
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.
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 W15088 Niagara 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B), W15088 Niagara 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on W15088 Niagara 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.
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. W15088 Niagara 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
– W15088 Niagara 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (B) 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 W15088 Niagara needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.