The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation
On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected legal challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as 'Obamacare,' by a vote of 5-4. In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), a majority of the justices affirmed Congress's power to expand Medicaid and impose an individual mandate requiring people to obtain health insurance or face increasing tax penalties. The Court's decision was widely condemned as a dramatic expansion of federal power that threatened state sovereignty and individual liberty. The Court was heavily criticized for betraying the principles of federalism and limited government in the U.S. Constitution. The harshest criticism was reserved for Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee who--though considered a conservative justice--authored the Court's opinion and cast the critical deciding vote to uphold the Act. In reality, far from dramatically expanding federal power, the Court's decision placed groundbreaking limits on Congress's power to regulate commerce and use federal funds to pressure states into doing its bidding. These aspects of the Court's decision received less attention in the popular media, but may actually prove to have a more significant impact on the scope of federal regulation in the future. This installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner explains how those aspects of the Court's decision place new limits on the nature and scope of federal regulation.
Swot Analysis of "The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation" written by Timothy A Lemper includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Court's Federal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Court's Federal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Court's Federal 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Court's Federal
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 Court's Federal
Strengths The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Court's Federal in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Court's Federal 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 Timothy A Lemper 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Court's Federal in the sector have low bargaining power. The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Court's Federal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Court's Federal 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Court's Federal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Court's Federal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Court's Federal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Court's Federal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Court's Federal 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 The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Court's Federal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Court's Federal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Court's Federal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Court's Federal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Court's Federal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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.
Learning organization
- Court's Federal 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 Court's Federal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Court's Federal 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation HBR case study mentions - Court's Federal 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Court's Federal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Court's Federal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation, in the dynamic environment Court's Federal has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Court's Federal 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, Timothy A Lemper suggests that, Court's Federal 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Court's Federal 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. Court's Federal 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Court's Federal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Court's Federal 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Court's Federal 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Court's Federal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Court's Federal supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Court's Federal vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation | 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Court's Federal 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Court's Federal to increase its market reach. Court's Federal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Court's Federal 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.
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 Court's Federal 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.
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. Court's Federal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Court's Federal in the consumer business. Now Court's Federal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Court's Federal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Court's Federal 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Court's Federal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Court's Federal 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Court's Federal 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 Court's Federal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Court's Federal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Court's Federal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation case study. Court's Federal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Court's Federal can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Court's Federal 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. Court's Federal 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
– Court's Federal 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.
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 Court's Federal in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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 Court's Federal.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Court's Federal 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Court's Federal 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Court's Federal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Court's Federal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Court's Federal 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Court's Federal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Court's Federal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Supreme Struggle: 'Obamacare' and the New Limits of Federal Regulation 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 Court's Federal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.