Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed
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
Swot Analysis of "Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed" written by Linda Bilmes, Matt Mabe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mateczun Walter facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed
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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mateczun Walter, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mateczun Walter 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mateczun Walter
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 Mateczun Walter
Strengths Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mateczun Walter in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Mateczun Walter has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mateczun Walter to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mateczun Walter 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mateczun Walter is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mateczun Walter are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mateczun Walter 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Mateczun Walter is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mateczun Walter in the sector have low bargaining power. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mateczun Walter to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Mateczun Walter
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mateczun Walter does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mateczun Walter to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mateczun Walter to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mateczun Walter has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mateczun Walter 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
- Mateczun Walter 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 Mateczun Walter is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Mateczun Walter 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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.
Weaknesses Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mateczun Walter, firm in the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed, is just above the industry average. Mateczun Walter 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed, in the dynamic environment Mateczun Walter has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mateczun Walter has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mateczun Walter is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mateczun Walter 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed HBR case study mentions - Mateczun Walter 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 Mateczun Walter has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mateczun Walter 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Mateczun Walter has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mateczun Walter 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed | 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mateczun Walter is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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
– Mateczun Walter 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mateczun Walter 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mateczun Walter 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 Mateczun Walter to increase its market reach. Mateczun Walter 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mateczun Walter can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mateczun Walter operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Mateczun Walter can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mateczun Walter 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mateczun Walter 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.
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. Mateczun Walter 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. Mateczun Walter 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.
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 Mateczun Walter in the consumer business. Now Mateczun Walter can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mateczun Walter 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mateczun Walter 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mateczun Walter has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mateczun Walter to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed case study. Mateczun Walter can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mateczun Walter is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Mateczun Walter in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Mateczun Walter can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mateczun Walter 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mateczun Walter 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mateczun Walter with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mateczun Walter has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mateczun Walter 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.
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.
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 Mateczun Walter business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Mateczun Walter 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mateczun Walter 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. Mateczun Walter can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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. Mateczun Walter 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 Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 (A): Vice Admiral John Mateczun and JTF CapMed 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 Mateczun Walter needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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