SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Interpace Diagnostics (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Interpace Diagnostics is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Interpace Diagnostics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Interpace Diagnostics can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Interpace Diagnostics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Interpace 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 Interpace Diagnostics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Interpace Diagnostics
2. Improving business portfolio management of Interpace Diagnostics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Healthcare Facilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Interpace Diagnostics
Strengths of Interpace Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Interpace Diagnostics are -
High brand equity
– Interpace Diagnostics has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Interpace Diagnostics to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Interpace 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 Interpace Diagnostics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Interpace Diagnostics emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Interpace Diagnostics is one of the most innovative firm in Healthcare Facilities sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Interpace 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.
Training and development
– Interpace Diagnostics has one of the best training and development program in Healthcare industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Digital Transformation in Healthcare Facilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Interpace Diagnostics digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Interpace Diagnostics 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.
Organizational Resilience of Interpace Diagnostics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Interpace Diagnostics does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Interpace Diagnostics in Healthcare Facilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Interpace Diagnostics has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Healthcare Facilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Interpace Diagnostics have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Interpace Diagnostics in the Healthcare sector have low bargaining power. Interpace Diagnostics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Interpace Diagnostics to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Interpace Diagnostics has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Interpace Diagnostics staying ahead in the Healthcare Facilities industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Interpace Diagnostics is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Healthcare Facilities industry. The technology infrastructure of United States is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Weaknesses of Interpace Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Interpace Diagnostics are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Interpace Diagnostics has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Healthcare Facilities industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on Interpace Diagnostics ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Interpace Diagnostics still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Healthcare Facilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Interpace Diagnostics has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Interpace Diagnostics products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Interpace Diagnostics needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Interpace 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Healthcare Facilities industry, Interpace 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Interpace Diagnostics is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Interpace Diagnostics to provide better information regarding Healthcare Facilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Interpace 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. Interpace Diagnostics should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Healthcare Facilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Interpace Diagnostics 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Healthcare Facilities industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Interpace Diagnostics 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 Healthcare Facilities industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Interpace 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 Interpace Diagnostics lucrative customers.
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 Interpace Diagnostics supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Interpace Diagnostics is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Interpace Diagnostics vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interpace Diagnostics Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Interpace Diagnostics are -
Buying journey improvements
– Interpace Diagnostics can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Healthcare Facilities 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Interpace Diagnostics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Interpace 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.
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 Interpace 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Interpace 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 Interpace Diagnostics to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Interpace Diagnostics 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, Interpace Diagnostics can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Interpace Diagnostics operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Healthcare Facilities sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Interpace 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Interpace Diagnostics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Healthcare Facilities industry. This can help Interpace Diagnostics to build a more holistic ecosystem for Interpace Diagnostics products in the Healthcare Facilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Interpace Diagnostics 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Interpace Diagnostics can develop new processes and procedures in Healthcare Facilities 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Interpace Diagnostics 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Interpace Diagnostics 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 Interpace Diagnostics to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Interpace 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. Interpace 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Interpace Diagnostics can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Interpace Diagnostics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Interpace Diagnostics are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Interpace Diagnostics is facing in Healthcare Facilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Interpace Diagnostics
– 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 Interpace Diagnostics.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Healthcare Facilities industry are lowering. It can presents Interpace 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Interpace 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.
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 Interpace Diagnostics.
Environmental challenges
– Interpace Diagnostics 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. Interpace Diagnostics can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Healthcare Facilities industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Interpace Diagnostics 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Interpace Diagnostics may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Healthcare Facilities sector.
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.
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. Interpace Diagnostics can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Interpace Diagnostics in the Healthcare Facilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Interpace Diagnostics in Healthcare Facilities industry. The Healthcare Facilities 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Interpace 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Interpace Diagnostics Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Interpace 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 Interpace 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 Interpace 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 Interpace 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 Interpace Diagnostics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
