Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , SeaSpine Holdings Corp is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that SeaSpine Holdings Corp can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the SeaSpine Holdings Corp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
2. Improving business portfolio management of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Medical Equipment & Supplies sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
Strengths of SeaSpine Holdings Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of SeaSpine Holdings Corp are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of SeaSpine Holdings Corp have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp is one of the most innovative firm in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
Digital Transformation in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For SeaSpine Holdings Corp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Learning organization
- SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at SeaSpine Holdings Corp emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled SeaSpine Holdings Corp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. The sustainable margins have also helped SeaSpine Holdings Corp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled SeaSpine Holdings Corp to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing SeaSpine Holdings Corp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp is present in almost all the verticals within the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. This has provided SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – SeaSpine Holdings Corp staying ahead in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of SeaSpine Holdings Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SeaSpine Holdings Corp are -
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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, SeaSpine Holdings Corp is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left SeaSpine Holdings Corp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though SeaSpine Holdings Corp has some of the most successful models in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. SeaSpine Holdings Corp should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on SeaSpine Holdings Corp ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of SeaSpine Holdings Corp still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though SeaSpine Holdings Corp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
SeaSpine Holdings Corp has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, SeaSpine Holdings Corp needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at SeaSpine Holdings Corp can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as SeaSpine Holdings Corp is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of SeaSpine Holdings Corp, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, SeaSpine Holdings Corp has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry over the last five years. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, SeaSpine Holdings Corp is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help SeaSpine Holdings Corp to provide better information regarding Medical Equipment & Supplies products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
SeaSpine Holdings Corp Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of SeaSpine Holdings Corp are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of SeaSpine Holdings Corp has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. This can help SeaSpine Holdings Corp to build a more holistic ecosystem for SeaSpine Holdings Corp products in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry by providing – 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled SeaSpine Holdings Corp to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help SeaSpine Holdings Corp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help SeaSpine Holdings Corp to increase its market reach. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for SeaSpine Holdings Corp in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. Now SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp can develop new processes and procedures in Medical Equipment & Supplies 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
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, SeaSpine Holdings Corp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that SeaSpine Holdings Corp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
Threats SeaSpine Holdings Corp External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of SeaSpine Holdings Corp are -
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.
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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp.
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. SeaSpine Holdings Corp needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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. SeaSpine Holdings Corp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. SeaSpine Holdings Corp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that SeaSpine Holdings Corp is facing in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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.
Increasing wage structure of SeaSpine Holdings Corp
– 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, SeaSpine Holdings Corp may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– SeaSpine Holdings Corp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, SeaSpine Holdings Corp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Medical Equipment & Supplies sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for SeaSpine Holdings Corp in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. The Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SeaSpine Holdings Corp Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp 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 SeaSpine Holdings Corp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
