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Shriners Hospitals for Children SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Shriners Hospitals for Children


A large, international benevolent association operating 22 children's hospitals and four research centres in three countries has been negatively impacted by a number of external factors. The effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on its endowment funds coupled with rising health care costs and flat donations, have resulted in the hospitals running at a loss. To ensure the long-term viability of their not-for-profit hospital system, management feels it must present drastic options to delegates at its annual general meeting, including reconsidering the policy of providing free medical care to children regardless of their ability to pay, shutting down research facilities and closing over a quarter of their hospitals. While management is confident that the quality of care for pediatric patients will not be compromised, all of the options being considered will significantly impact hospital operations and the organization's culture. For the first time in the 87 years of the organization's existence, some very difficult options are on the table.

Authors :: Karin Schnarr, Anne Snowdon

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Strategy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Shriners Hospitals for Children" written by Karin Schnarr, Anne Snowdon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hospitals Care facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Shriners Hospitals for Children case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Shriners Hospitals for Children casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shriners Hospitals for Children


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




Strengths Shriners Hospitals for Children | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Hospitals Care in Shriners Hospitals for Children Harvard Business Review case study are -

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hospitals Care digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hospitals Care has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Hospitals Care 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.

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

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

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

– Shriners Hospitals for Children firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hospitals Care to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hospitals Care to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Hospitals Care has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hospitals Care 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

– Hospitals Care has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Shriners Hospitals for Children 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Hospitals Care 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Hospitals Care 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)

– Hospitals Care 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children - 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

– Hospitals Care is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Shriners Hospitals for Children Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Hospitals Care is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Shriners Hospitals for Children are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.






Weaknesses Shriners Hospitals for Children | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Shriners Hospitals for Children are -

Workers concerns about automation

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

Need for greater diversity

– Hospitals Care 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Shriners Hospitals for Children, is just above the industry average. Hospitals Care 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Hospitals Care 's lucrative customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Karin Schnarr, Anne Snowdon suggests that, Hospitals Care 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Hospitals Care has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Hospitals Care 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 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 Hospitals Care supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Shriners Hospitals for Children, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hospitals Care vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hospitals Care is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Shriners Hospitals for Children can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Hospitals Care 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children | 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children are -

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hospitals Care 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Hospitals Care has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hospitals Care to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Shriners Hospitals for Children case study. Hospitals Care can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Hospitals Care 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. Hospitals Care 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Hospitals Care can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Shriners Hospitals for Children 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

– Hospitals Care 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.

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

Increase in government spending

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

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Hospitals Care 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

– Hospitals Care has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Hospitals Care 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hospitals Care to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hospitals Care 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, Shriners Hospitals for Children, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hospitals Care can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.




Threats Shriners Hospitals for Children External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Shriners Hospitals for Children are -

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Hospitals Care 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.

Shortening product life cycle

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

Environmental challenges

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

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hospitals Care 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children .

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

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Hospitals Care 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.

Trade war between China and United States

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

Barriers of entry lowering

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

Consumer confidence and its impact on Hospitals Care 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.

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 Hospitals Care.

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




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Shriners Hospitals for Children 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 Hospitals Care needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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