×




HealthStream (HSTM) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for HealthStream (United States)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , HealthStream is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc



12 Hrs

$59.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now

24 Hrs

$49.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now

48 Hrs

$39.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now







Introduction to SWOT Analysis of HealthStream


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that HealthStream can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the HealthStream, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which HealthStream 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 HealthStream can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of HealthStream
2. Improving business portfolio management of HealthStream
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of HealthStream




Strengths of HealthStream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of HealthStream are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of HealthStream comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Business Services 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.

Organizational Resilience of HealthStream

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

Diverse revenue streams

– HealthStream is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided HealthStream 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 Business Services industry

– HealthStream has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled HealthStream to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped HealthStream to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Business Services industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For HealthStream digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. HealthStream 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.

Innovation driven organization

– HealthStream is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.

Learning organization

- HealthStream 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 HealthStream is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at HealthStream emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that HealthStream 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of HealthStream in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of HealthStream in the Services sector have low bargaining power. HealthStream has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps HealthStream to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Strong track record of project management in the Business Services industry

– HealthStream 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 HealthStream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of HealthStream are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though HealthStream has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. HealthStream should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Lack of clear differentiation of HealthStream products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, HealthStream needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Business Services industry, HealthStream 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that HealthStream needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Business Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at HealthStream can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as HealthStream is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on HealthStream ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of HealthStream still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Business Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though HealthStream has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

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 HealthStream supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, HealthStream is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left HealthStream vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, HealthStream has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Business Services industry over the last five years. HealthStream 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at HealthStream, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. HealthStream has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

HealthStream has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Business Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Need for greater diversity

– HealthStream 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 of HealthStream is just above the Business Services industry average. It 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.




HealthStream Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of HealthStream are -

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for HealthStream in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Business Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Leveraging digital technologies

– HealthStream 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– HealthStream has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Business Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled HealthStream to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help HealthStream to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Increase in government spending

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

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help HealthStream to increase its market reach. HealthStream 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for HealthStream 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.

Loyalty marketing

– HealthStream 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– HealthStream can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.

Buying journey improvements

– HealthStream can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. HealthStream 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. HealthStream 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.

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. HealthStream can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, HealthStream can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of HealthStream has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Business Services industry. This can help HealthStream to build a more holistic ecosystem for HealthStream products in the Business Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.




Threats HealthStream External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of HealthStream are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for HealthStream in Business Services industry. The Business Services 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that HealthStream is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– HealthStream 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 Business Services industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, HealthStream 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 HealthStream 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. HealthStream 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.

Regulatory challenges

– HealthStream 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 Business Services industry regulations.

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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, HealthStream may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.

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 HealthStream in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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. HealthStream needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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

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 HealthStream.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– HealthStream 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of HealthStream Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at HealthStream 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 HealthStream 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 HealthStream 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 HealthStream 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 HealthStream needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



--- ---

BYBON A SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Services , Business Services


KBC Ancora SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Financial , Misc. Financial Services


Nexeo Solutions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Financial , Misc. Financial Services


Severn Trent SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Utilities , Water Utilities


Huvitz SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Healthcare , Medical Equipment & Supplies


Ituran SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Services , Security Systems & Services


Inaba Seisakusho SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Consumer Cyclical , Furniture & Fixtures


Aixtron SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Semiconductors