Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company
Phreesia is successful with a tablet for patients to sign in at the doctor's office which can also be used for billing. But what is the next market opportunity for them? And is their ad-based revenue model sustainable?
Swot Analysis of "Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company" written by Regina E. Herzlinger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Phreesia Doctor's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, IT, Marketing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Phreesia Doctor's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Phreesia Doctor's
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 Phreesia Doctor's
Strengths Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Phreesia Doctor's in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Phreesia Doctor's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Phreesia Doctor's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Phreesia Doctor's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Phreesia Doctor's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Phreesia Doctor's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Phreesia Doctor's 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Phreesia Doctor's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Learning organization
- Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia Doctor's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Phreesia Doctor's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Phreesia Doctor's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia Doctor's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Phreesia Doctor's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Phreesia Doctor's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Phreesia Doctor's in the sector have low bargaining power. Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Phreesia Doctor's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Phreesia Doctor's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Phreesia Doctor's has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Phreesia Doctor's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Phreesia Doctor's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company, in the dynamic environment Phreesia Doctor's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Phreesia Doctor's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Regina E. Herzlinger suggests that, Phreesia Doctor's 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Phreesia Doctor's has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Phreesia Doctor's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company HBR case study mentions - Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Opportunities Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company | 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Phreesia Doctor's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Phreesia Doctor's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company case study. Phreesia Doctor's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia Doctor's 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.
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. Phreesia Doctor's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Phreesia Doctor's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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, Phreesia Doctor's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Phreesia Doctor's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Phreesia Doctor's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Phreesia Doctor's can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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 Phreesia Doctor's 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 Phreesia Doctor's in the consumer business. Now Phreesia Doctor's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company are -
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. Phreesia Doctor's 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. Phreesia Doctor's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Phreesia Doctor's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company, Phreesia Doctor's 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 .
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.
Environmental challenges
– Phreesia Doctor's 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. Phreesia Doctor's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 Phreesia Doctor's.
Increasing wage structure of Phreesia Doctor's
– 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 Phreesia Doctor's.
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. Phreesia Doctor's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Phreesia Doctor's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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 Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company 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 Phreesia Doctor's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.