Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

In 2008, the state of Oregon had the budget to enroll 10,000 individuals into Medicaid. But officials knew that demand for Medicaid would be far greater. To give all poor, uninsured Oregonians a fair chance at receiving health insurance, the state established a lottery. In this simple lottery, renowned economists Katherine Baicker (at Harvard) and Amy Finkelstein (at MIT) found a rare and promising natural experiment. For decades, evidence on the impacts of health insurance on health was dominated by observational studies, which offered inconclusive answers. Under the Oregon lottery, some individuals were randomly selected from a waiting list to receive insurance while others were not, enabling comparison between the two groups, and in effect creating a randomized experiment. The Oregon health experiment, as it came to be known, would finally give economists and policymakers rigorous evidence on how access to health insurance affected the provision and use of health care, and ultimately, influenced the health and well-being of the population. By 2016, as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an estimated 25 million Americans were set to obtain health insurance, 12 million under Medicaid alone; driving home the need to find conclusive answers to these longstanding questions. Case number 2019.0

Authors :: Amitabh Chandra, Anjani Datla

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Health, Market research, Personnel policies, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment" written by Amitabh Chandra, Anjani Datla includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Health Oregon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Market research, Personnel policies, Social enterprise, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

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

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Strengths Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Health Oregon in Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment Harvard Business Review case study are -

High brand equity

– Health Oregon has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Health Oregon to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Organizational Resilience of Health Oregon

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– Health Oregon is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Health Oregon 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.

Analytics focus

– Health Oregon 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 Amitabh Chandra, Anjani Datla 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

– Health Oregon has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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

- Health Oregon 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 Health Oregon is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– Health Oregon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Superior customer experience

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

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Health Oregon 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Strong track record of project management

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Health Oregon in the sector have low bargaining power. Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Health Oregon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

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Weaknesses Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment are -

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Health Oregon 's lucrative customers.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Health Oregon 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. Health Oregon 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Health Oregon 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Health Oregon has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Amitabh Chandra, Anjani Datla suggests that, Health Oregon 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, is just above the industry average. Health Oregon 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Health Oregon 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Health Oregon is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, in the dynamic environment Health Oregon has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Health Oregon has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Need for greater diversity

– Health Oregon 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Health Oregon is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Health Oregon needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Health Oregon to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

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Opportunities Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment | 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment are -

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 Health Oregon in the consumer business. Now Health Oregon can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Health Oregon 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Health Oregon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Health Oregon 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, Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Developing new processes and practices

– Health Oregon 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Health Oregon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Health Oregon to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment case study. Health Oregon 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 Health Oregon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Buying journey improvements

– Health Oregon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Health Oregon 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.

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

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Health Oregon 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Health Oregon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Health Oregon 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Health Oregon 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.

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Threats Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

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

Regulatory challenges

– Health Oregon 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.

Trade war between China and United States

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

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. Health Oregon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Health Oregon.

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 Health Oregon business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Increasing wage structure of Health Oregon

– 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 Health Oregon.

Shortening product life cycle

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

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. Health Oregon 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, Health Oregon may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Health Oregon 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment .

Consumer confidence and its impact on Health Oregon 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Expanding Health Insurance to Millions: Learning from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment 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 Health Oregon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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