Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed

This case is part of a four part series that examines the merger of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Military Center at Bethesda - the most expensive, controversial and largest hospital merger in US history. The series includes: A case + A teaching note (Leadership of VADM Mateczun); B case + B teaching note (Army/Navy cultural issues); Epilogue (short conclusion); Film - award winning short documentary. The A case focuses on the leadership of Vice Admiral Dr. John Mateczun, a three-star Navy admiral who led the merger. Mateczun achieved what many considered to be a minor miracle - integrating Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval in the face of fierce institutional resistance. But in his drive to see the plan through, Mateczun stretched the limit of military authority, expended his political capital and alienated friends and colleagues. The case allows discussion of leadership styles and the importance of persuasion, negotiation, communication issues, and personal character. There are two companion cases and a 17-minute film. The film shows a brief history of the hospitals, explains the BRAC (Base Closure Commission), and shows the intensity and urgency of the medical needs of patients being cared for at Walter Reed during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The B Case focuses on the difficulties of merging organizations with significant cultural differences. It may be taught together with the (A) case or on its own with the video. The short Epilogue looks at the outcome in 2014, 3 years after the merger. Case number 2035.0

Authors :: Linda Bilmes, Matt Mabe

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Government, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed" written by Linda Bilmes, Matt Mabe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Walter Reed facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions and Leadership & Managing People.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Walter Reed, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Walter Reed 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Walter Reed
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 Walter Reed

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Strengths Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Walter Reed in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Walter Reed is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Learning organization

- Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Walter Reed digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Walter Reed 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Walter Reed is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Walter Reed in the sector have low bargaining power. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Walter Reed to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Walter Reed 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.

Training and development

– Walter Reed has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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.

Organizational Resilience of Walter Reed

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Walter Reed does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Walter Reed in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– Walter Reed is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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.

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Weaknesses Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Walter Reed 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 - Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Walter Reed 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Walter Reed is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Walter Reed 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 decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Walter Reed 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. Walter Reed 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed, it seems that the employees of Walter Reed 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed, 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed 's lucrative customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Walter Reed products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Walter Reed needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Need for greater diversity

– Walter Reed 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Walter Reed is planning to shift buying processes online.

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Opportunities Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed | 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Walter Reed can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Manufacturing automation

– Walter Reed 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Walter Reed 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Walter Reed to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Walter Reed to increase its market reach. Walter Reed 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Walter Reed 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, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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. Walter Reed can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Walter Reed 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Walter Reed 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.

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. Walter Reed 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. Walter Reed 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Walter Reed can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Walter Reed 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.

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Threats Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Walter Reed 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Walter Reed 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Walter Reed 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. Walter Reed 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Walter Reed with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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 Walter Reed business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Walter Reed has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Walter Reed 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.

Increasing wage structure of Walter Reed

– 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 Walter Reed.

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. Walter Reed needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Environmental challenges

– Walter Reed 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. Walter Reed can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Walter Reed is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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.

Regulatory challenges

– Walter Reed 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (B): Integrating Army and Navy Cultures at the New Walter Reed 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 Walter Reed needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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