SWOT Analysis. Advantages and limitations - Essay Example

? SWOT Analysis tittle Introduction SWOT analysis is a tactical planning method used to evaluate the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats of a project or business. A SWOT analysis acts as a guide for one to know and identify the positive and negative of one's organization that is the strength and weakness as well as the external environment that is the opportunity and threats. Strengths are the qualities that enable one to achieve the organization’s assignment. Strengths are the beneficial aspects of the organization or the ability of an organization that includes human capabilities, financial resources, products and services. Weaknesses are the qualities that prevent an organization from achieving its goals. Opportunities are the essentials that the organization can adventure to its advantage. They are presented by the environment which an organization is based. Threats are the elements that cause problems for an organization. A threat occurs when an external environment endangers the ability of an organization to maximize profit (Pahl et al, 2009). Strength and weaknesses of the organization There is various strength I exposed in this organization. We have a good management approaches and corporate polices in the organization management system that enables good management process, we own a clinical research center. It is a center of excellence that runs clinical research, we have a highly skilled clinical staff that attends to patients with dignity and courteousness, we have local aids that are willing to participate in the running of the organization, we have a history of a successful open day proceedings with the community that surrounds us, the clinic has a philosophy of honesty, commitment and sharing to increasing patient self-assurance and the patients’ involvement in matters related to the services. This enables good relationship between the organization and the patients (Bensoussan et al, 2008). There are weaknesses we experience in the organization. For instance, the ratio of doctors and patients is low thus makes it hard to meet patients more often enough. Shortage of medical personals especially highly experienced medical specialist. Despite the highly skilled clinical staff, some surgeries and procedures are still too difficult to perform at the organization, for example, complex neuro surgeries which mean that patients have to be referred to a more advanced hospital. Poor location or geographic barriers are another weakness. We have a weakness in getting the potential patients nearby. Due to many specialist hospitals nearby that try to capture same area patients’ sources, the competition is aggressive Opportunity and threats for the external environment factors: Opportunity: Technological- better and advanced medical technology includes a wide variety of healthcare products. This intends to improve the quality of healthcare. Political- change in governmental politics. This can influence the service in that when the government introduces services that are of low tax and insurance products that favor the public this will enable many to run for the opportunities instead of avoiding medical facility due to low affordability rate. Competitive- due to Competitor vulnerabilities we will be able to excel in their areas of weakness thus improve the output level. Regulatory- this can be depicted through lowering of taxes by the government. This will enable the public access the organization products and services with ease. Social- in the social perspective, the population is expected to grow by 2015, the healthcare sector is expected continue to grow. Older age population will increase the demand for healthcare services. The country’s healthcare expenditure is predictable to grow from the current 3% of GDP to 6% of GDP by 2015. With the rising household income and improved life quality, the organization may benefit by capture this business segment opportunities. Economic- the organization can expand to other locations to serve more population and increase market share and long term revenues (Saket Projects, 2003) Threats: Technological- change in technology is a disruptive element that can cause extreme operational problems for the organization technological trends and innovations Political- The difficulty of today's political scenery is the reason why strategists spend more time anticipating and influencing public policy actions. For example if the government introduces free services in governmental organization this will slow down the out- put because many people will go for the free services. Competitive- a new competitor with much cheaper services may hinder the progress of the organization. Regulatory-with the tax increase, this will hinder many from accessing the organization products thus most of the services will not be delivered as supposed to be. This may lead to low out put. Social-this relates to assessing the social, culture an environmental or an organization. Economic- Economic factor such as inflation rates results to decline in purchasing power, this indirectly affecting patients seeking medical treatment when these groups of patients try to seek medical assistance from the organization (Zorc, 2012) Initiatives and allocation for the organization’s strategic five-year plan. Facility initiative- various important facilities have been planned for the next five-year plan among them is the relocation of the Intensive Care Unit in expectation of increased patient bed requirement and relocation of administrative offices to enable expansion of clinical service areas. This will enable us provide for a larger coverage for the both staff and patients. The intensive care unit will handle many other emergency cases that will enable expansion of income to the organization. Health care reform initiative- during this five year plan health reform initiative shall occur. The sectors that can be affected are the payment reforms that are to be reduced and the insurance reforms. The organization shall be set to allocate resources for the five year initiative of which shall be reflected through important improvements such as delivery of quality health care, maintenance of employee satisfaction, and through improved relationships between physicians, and hospital governance (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Risk Management Agency, 2008). Effects of the external environment and the role of leadership in strategic management Complexity this is diversity in environmental, sub-factors such as customers, suppliers, socio-politics and technology. As complexity increases, the ability to understand and use the information to plan and predict become easier. Turbulence this is dynamism in the environment, involving rapid, unexpected change in the environmental sub-dimensions. A stable environment changes little, and when it does, the change is predictable. In turbulent environments, there are many unexpected changes. There are various roles of leadership in strategic management that enables the running of the organization. Leaders are to communicate the policies to staff, in order to perform business activities that will yield results. Implementation of strategies that involve setting up an outline for execution, establishing business ethics, organizational structures and culture as well by setting up controls to monitor development and correct any issues. Conclusion In conclusion, the SWOT analysis has advantages and limitations. They are as follows: SWOT analysis helps in strategic planning in various ways such as It is a source of information for strategic planning, helps build organizational strength, reverse the organization weakness, and helps setting goals for strategic planning of an organization, helps overcoming organizational pressures, used to set goals for strategic planning and finally It helps in knowing present, past and forthcoming so that by using past and existing data, forthcoming plans can be written out Despite the fact that SWOT analysis has advantages it is however not free from various limitations. Classifying aspects such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats might be subjective because of a great degree of uncertainty in the market. When conducting a SWOT analysis, one should keep in mind that SWOT analysis is only one phase of an organization planning procedure. SWOT analysis can not be used in difficult issues because a more in-depth research and analysis shall be required to be applied. It only covers issues that can certainly be considered strength, weakness, opportunity or threat thus makes it difficult to address uncertain or two-sided factors, for example, factors that could either be strength, weakness or both. The SWOT analysis may be limited because it can produce too many ideas but not help choose the best, does not depict urgency of issues, does not provide answers or offer alternative choices, can produce a lot of evidence, but not all is useful (Pahl et al, 2009). References Bensoussan, B. E., & Fleisher, C. S. (2008). Analysis without paralysis: 10 tools to make better strategic decisions. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press. Indian healthcare industry: a SWOT analysis.. (2003). New Delhi: Published by Saket Projects on behalf of FICCI. Pahl, N., & Richter, A. (2009). SWOT Analysis - Idea, Methodology And A Practical Approach. Mu?nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH. SWOT analysis: a tool for making better business decisions.. (2008). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Risk Management Agency. Zorc, S. (2012). Digital content SWOT analysis. S. l.: FORSEE Partnership. Read More