SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Integrated Diagnostics (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Integrated Diagnostics is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Integrated Diagnostics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Integrated Diagnostics can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Integrated Diagnostics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Integrated Diagnostics
2. Improving business portfolio management of Integrated Diagnostics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Healthcare Facilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Integrated Diagnostics
Strengths of Integrated Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Integrated Diagnostics are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Integrated Diagnostics comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Healthcare Facilities 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Integrated Diagnostics has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Integrated Diagnostics in the Healthcare sector have low bargaining power. Integrated Diagnostics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Integrated Diagnostics to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Healthcare Facilities
– Integrated Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Healthcare Facilities industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Healthcare Facilities industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Integrated Diagnostics in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Integrated Diagnostics is present in almost all the verticals within the Healthcare Facilities industry. This has provided Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Organizational Resilience of Integrated Diagnostics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Integrated Diagnostics does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Learning organization
- Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Integrated Diagnostics emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Integrated Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Healthcare Facilities industry in United Kingdom. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United Kingdom. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Integrated Diagnostics is one of the most innovative firm in Healthcare Facilities sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Healthcare Facilities industry
– Integrated Diagnostics is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Integrated Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Integrated Diagnostics are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Integrated Diagnostics needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Integrated Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Integrated Diagnostics, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Healthcare Facilities industry. 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Healthcare Facilities industry, Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Integrated Diagnostics has some of the most successful models in the Healthcare Facilities industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Integrated Diagnostics should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Integrated Diagnostics products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Integrated Diagnostics needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Integrated Diagnostics is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Healthcare Facilities industry, but Integrated Diagnostics needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Integrated Diagnostics to focus more on services in the Healthcare Facilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Integrated Diagnostics needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Healthcare Facilities industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Integrated Diagnostics can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Integrated Diagnostics is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Integrated Diagnostics has high operating costs in the Healthcare Facilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Integrated Diagnostics lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Integrated Diagnostics, in the dynamic environment of Healthcare Facilities industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Integrated Diagnostics has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Integrated Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Healthcare Facilities industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Healthcare Facilities industry in last five years.
Integrated Diagnostics Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Integrated Diagnostics are -
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 Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Integrated Diagnostics to increase its market reach. Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Integrated Diagnostics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Integrated Diagnostics can utilize new technology in the field of Healthcare Facilities industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Integrated Diagnostics to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Integrated Diagnostics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Healthcare Facilities industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Integrated Diagnostics in the Healthcare Facilities industry. Now Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Healthcare Facilities industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Integrated Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Healthcare Facilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Integrated Diagnostics can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Healthcare Facilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Integrated Diagnostics 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. Integrated Diagnostics 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Integrated Diagnostics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Healthcare Facilities industry. This can help Integrated Diagnostics to build a more holistic ecosystem for Integrated Diagnostics products in the Healthcare Facilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Integrated Diagnostics can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Integrated Diagnostics 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
– Integrated Diagnostics has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Healthcare Facilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Integrated Diagnostics to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Integrated Diagnostics to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Integrated Diagnostics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Integrated Diagnostics are -
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. Integrated Diagnostics needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Healthcare Facilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Integrated Diagnostics in the Healthcare Facilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Healthcare Facilities industry are lowering. It can presents Integrated Diagnostics with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Healthcare Facilities sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Integrated Diagnostics is facing in Healthcare Facilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Integrated Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Integrated Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry.
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 Integrated Diagnostics.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics prominent markets.
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. Integrated Diagnostics 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.
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 Integrated Diagnostics business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Integrated Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Healthcare Facilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Integrated Diagnostics can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Integrated Diagnostics Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics 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 Integrated Diagnostics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
