Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit
The (A) case presents a 2009 critical expansion decision for health care nonprofit Health Leads: whether to expand rapidly while it had momentum, strong advocates, very high demand for its services, and funder support for growth; or whether to postpone rapid expansion and continue working on its model and further prove the company's value to hospitals and clinics. Founded by Rebecca Onie (2009 MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellow), Health Leads addressed issues at the intersection of health and poverty. The organization operated "Help Desks" in hospitals and clinics to connect patients to essential non-medical resources that could improve their health, such as adequate food, heating, and housing. College student volunteers ran Health Leads' desks, and in 2008 the company helped over 4,000 patients through 20 desks in six U.S. cities. The factors that Health Leads considered in making its expansion decision included: its role as a mission-based nonprofit and its desire to make a national impact; the extremely high demand for new Health Leads Help Desks (up to 500 requests a year); funder growth expectations; concerns about diluting the culture and the brand; and the need for more data to prove the company's financial value to hospitals and clinics. Health Leads also had to decide what expansion would look like if it decided to take that path. Would it mean adding desks in cities in which it already operated or expanding to new cities? If Health Leads expanded, how quickly should it do so? The (B) case describes the company's strategic decision and its impact, and presents the status of Health Leads in the summer of 2013.
Authors :: Jesper Sorensen, Debra Schifrin, Kevin Hettrich
Swot Analysis of "Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit" written by Jesper Sorensen, Debra Schifrin, Kevin Hettrich includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Leads Health facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Leads Health, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Leads Health 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Leads Health
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 Leads Health
Strengths Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Leads Health in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Leads Health is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Leads Health has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Leads Health 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.
Training and development
– Leads Health has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Leads Health is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Leads Health to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Leads Health to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Leads Health has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Leads Health to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Leads Health is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Leads Health in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Leads Health
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Leads Health does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Leads Health is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Leads Health 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 Leads Health in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Leads Health 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Leads Health 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Leads Health is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Leads Health needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Leads Health to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Leads Health 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 - Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Leads Health products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Leads Health needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit HBR case study mentions - Leads Health 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Leads Health 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Leads Health 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Leads Health 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.
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 Leads Health supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Leads Health vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit | 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Leads Health 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Leads Health 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Leads Health can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Leads Health 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, Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Leads Health can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Leads Health to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
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 Leads Health in the consumer business. Now Leads Health can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Leads Health 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.
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. Leads Health 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
– Leads Health 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Leads Health to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Leads Health is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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.
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. Leads Health 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. Leads Health 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 Leads Health can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Leads Health 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Leads Health 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.
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. Leads Health needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Leads Health.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Leads Health 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, Leads Health 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Leads Health 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 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.
Increasing wage structure of Leads Health
– 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 Leads Health.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Leads Health with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Leads Health 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.
Environmental challenges
– Leads Health 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. Leads Health can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Leads Health 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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 Health Leads (A): Expansion Decisions for a Health Care Nonprofit 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 Leads Health needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.