RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid
This case describes the evolution of Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF), which provides primary healthcare services to the economically underprivileged in rural India, its various alliances with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and for-profit organizations. RHCF centers attract large number of patients every day from as far away as 100 km, due to low charges (INR 40, which is less than 1 USD, for consultation and a week's supply of medicine) and availability of reliable doctors. The case discusses the scale up challenges RHCF is facing to expand their centers to other locations as well as to provide other services within each center. The case also highlights the role various alliances, between NGOs and for profit organizations, play in delivering healthcare services to the bottom of the pyramid, especially those living in rural localities and can neither access nor afford proper medical facilities.
Swot Analysis of "RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid" written by Haritha Saranga, Sourav Mukherji, Vidyanand Jha includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rhcf Rural facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Health, Operations management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rhcf Rural, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rhcf Rural operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rhcf Rural
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 Rhcf Rural
Strengths RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rhcf Rural in RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Rhcf Rural 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
– RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rhcf Rural to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rhcf Rural to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rhcf Rural is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Rhcf Rural has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rhcf Rural to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rhcf Rural has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid - 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
– Rhcf Rural 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Rhcf Rural is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Rhcf Rural is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Haritha Saranga, Sourav Mukherji, Vidyanand Jha 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rhcf Rural 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rhcf Rural in the sector have low bargaining power. RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rhcf Rural to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Rhcf Rural is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Rhcf Rural in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid, is just above the industry average. Rhcf Rural 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 Rhcf Rural has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rhcf Rural has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Rhcf Rural even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Rhcf Rural 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Rhcf Rural needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Lack of clear differentiation of Rhcf Rural products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Rhcf Rural needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid, it seems that the employees of Rhcf Rural 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Rhcf Rural has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on 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 Rhcf Rural supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Rhcf Rural vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rhcf Rural 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 - RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid | 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid are -
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. Rhcf Rural can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rhcf Rural is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Rhcf Rural 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rhcf Rural can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rhcf Rural operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Rhcf Rural 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. Rhcf Rural 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Rhcf Rural 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Rhcf Rural can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Rhcf Rural to increase its market reach. Rhcf Rural will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Rhcf Rural can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the 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 Rhcf Rural 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.
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. Rhcf Rural can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Rhcf Rural can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rhcf Rural in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rhcf Rural 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Rhcf Rural 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Rhcf Rural is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Rhcf Rural.
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. Rhcf Rural needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rhcf Rural with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Rhcf Rural will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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. Rhcf Rural can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Rhcf Rural
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Rhcf Rural.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Rhcf Rural can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rhcf Rural high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rhcf Rural can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 RHCF: Reaching Primary Healthcare to the Base of the Pyramid 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 Rhcf Rural needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
