BUS 687 Assignment

SWOT AND STRATEGIES 1

SWOT and STRATEGIES

Washburn O. Kelly

Ashford University

MBA Capstone/ BUS 687

Instructor: Frederick Seiler

November 11, 2020

SWOT and STRATEGIES

Strengths

HISCO has identified several strengthens that have enabled them to venture into the market. Some of their strengths include market research; they understand their target market; thus, they have priced their products well. Secondly, they have strong engineering quality, which will increase market share by 36% by the end of 2021, according to a marketing manager's report (Gomes et al., 2005).

Weaknesses

HISCO, like many start-ups, experiences many challenges that display as weaknesses. These weaknesses include lack of marketing strategies, staff turnover rate, customer conversion, and credit line, increasing as the company grows (Helms & Nixon, 2010). According to CEO Stanley Sloane, the company needs to develop a marketing strategy to compete with other companies Redex and Matek. The company has been running on losses and has so far recorded a loss of 130,000 USD (Gomes et al., 2005).

Opportunities

There are several opportunities and markets that HISCO can exploit, such as clinics, banks, and the food processing industry (Simoneaux & Stroud, 2011). Additionally, the company can subscribe to Marketing Analysis Associates (MAA), which will help them survey results and forecasting data. MAA reports that there are 5349 hospitals in the U.S., which means that the company will record an increase of 7088 by the fourth quarter of 2021 from 3118 in quarter one (Gomes et al., 2005).

Threats

HISCO’s competitors Redex and Matek, are re-organizing and building their ability to compete in the same market with similar products. While one company has good manufacturing, the other is has a strong marketing edge. In the first quarter of 2019, HISCO recorded 422 units by the end of the fourth quarter. HISCO recorded a growth of 829 units (Gomes et al., 2005). However, without a marketing strategy and declining manufacturing edge, HISCO will lose its clients to its competitors (Maresova et al., 2015).

Strategy

HISCO can apply the following strategies:

Referrals- According to Berman (2016), referral leads convert more than 30% of sales and have a18% higher lifetime value. HISCO can use their existing clients as referrals, which in turn can increase their customer conversion.

Reward point system- HISCO can implement a rewards program where every purchase gains the hospital 5 points accumulated. These rewards point will increase customer retention by 95% (San Ong & Teh, 2012).

References

Berman, B. (2016). Referral marketing: Harnessing the power of your customers. Business Horizons, 59(1), 19-28.

Gomes, D., Van Hettinga, G., Tindall, M., & Kontonicolas, N. (2005). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/674,468.

“Growing Your Business” – A Management Simulation. (https://ashford.trisimulation.com/canvas)

Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now?. Journal of strategy and management.

Holtzman, Y., Gorkhover, G., & Ganz, M. (2015, January 12). The U.S. medical device industry: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://www.mddionline.com/us-medical-device-industry-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats

Maresova, P., Penhaker, M., Selamat, A., & Kuca, K. (2015). The potential of the medical device industry in the technological and economic context. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 11, 1505-1514. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S88574

San Ong, T., & Teh, B. H. (2012). Reward system and performance within Malaysian manufacturing companies. World applied sciences journal, 19(7), 1009-1017.

Simoneaux, S. L., & Stroud, C. L. (2011). SWOT analysis: The annual check-up for a business. Journal of Pension Benefits: Issues in Administration, 18(3), 75-78.