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Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas


After suffering severe complications from a relatively minor surgery at a California children's hospital in early December 2013, a young teenage girl was declared brain dead. However, to her family, the girl seemed responsive and they refused to accept the hospital's statement that their daughter was deceased. The hospital arranged visits with social workers and other staff in an attempt to help the family understand that their daughter was dead and, after three days, informed the family of its plan to move the teen's body to the morgue. The case quickly became a nationwide media event. The family acquired a noted lawyer to ensure the teen received the care the family thought was needed, while the hospital hired a public relations firm to become the hospital's voice in the issue, a move that might have exacerbated the problem. With such a complex and tragic crisis that rapidly unfolded, should the hospital have a policy in the event that family members disagree with an official medical diagnosis? How could the hospital have managed the aftermath of the teen's death and prevented a media embarrassment? Arthur Daemmrich is affiliated with KU Medical Center.

Authors :: Arthur A. Daemmrich, Lauren Davis

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Leadership, Organizational culture, Public relations, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas" written by Arthur A. Daemmrich, Lauren Davis includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hospital Family facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture, Public relations and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hospital Family, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hospital Family 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hospital Family
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 Hospital Family




Strengths Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Hospital Family in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas Harvard Business Review case study are -

Innovation driven organization

– Hospital Family is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Analytics focus

– Hospital Family 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 Arthur A. Daemmrich, Lauren Davis 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.

Training and development

– Hospital Family has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Hospital Family 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Superior customer experience

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

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hospital Family to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hospital Family to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– Hospital Family is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Strong track record of project management

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

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

– Hospital Family 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 Hospital Family in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Hospital Family is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 switching costs

– The high switching costs that Hospital Family 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.






Weaknesses Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hospital Family is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas, is just above the industry average. Hospital Family 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.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Hospital Family 's lucrative customers.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Hospital Family, firm in the HBR case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Hospital Family 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 Hospital Family supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hospital Family vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hospital Family has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas, it seems that the employees of Hospital Family 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas HBR case study mentions - Hospital Family takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas, in the dynamic environment Hospital Family has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hospital Family has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Hospital Family 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.




Opportunities Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas | 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas are -

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Better consumer reach

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

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

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

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hospital Family 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, Hospital Family is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Hospital Family 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.

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. Hospital Family 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. Hospital Family 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Hospital Family 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.

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. Hospital Family can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hospital Family can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hospital Family operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Hospital Family has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hospital Family to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas case study. Hospital Family can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hospital Family 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, Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.




Threats Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas are -

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Hospital Family 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 Hospital Family in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hospital Family in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

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

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

Consumer confidence and its impact on Hospital Family 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.

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.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Regulatory challenges

– Hospital Family 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.

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. Hospital Family 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

– Hospital Family 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hospital Family 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas .

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. Hospital Family 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Children's Hospital Oakland: End-of-Life Dilemmas 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 Hospital Family needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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