SWOT analysis is a structured planning system which is used by organizations to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analysis can be done on a number of items which include: industry, place, product, or person. The analysis involves the company identifying the objectives of the organization or project and then identifying the external and internal issues which are good and bad to the company or project in order to achieve the set objectives. SWOT analysis has become popular in many businesses and its inception is credited to Albert Humphrey. Alfred led a convention at the SRI-International in the mid 1960s whereby he used information from Fortune 500 companies to explain his analysis. Conversely, Alfred claims that he is not the founder of SWOT analysis and therefore its source remains obscure to date. SWOT analysis is also an important tool when it comes to marketing a product or an organization (Valentin, 2001). The ability of a firm to identify SWOTs is crucial as they can inform later steps in the process of planning and achieving the objectives of the business. In this study, the health department should prepare a SWOT analysis which will in turn help it to plan on the process of achieving its objectives. Given the SWOTs, the first step of any firm is deciding whether the objectives are attainable. Some companies create unrealistic objectives which cannot be achieved with the available resources and efforts. If the objectives and unrealistic and not attainable, the concerned organization should select different ones and repeat the procedure. Sometimes, SWOT is referred ad Internal-External Analysis and the SWOT matrix referred as an IE Matrix. Mostly, it is used in business contexts and helps to carve a sustainable forte in the market (Valentin, 2001).
There are basically four questions that one will ask him/herself before they write a SWOT analysis. The first question that needs to be asked is the strengths that an organization has. It involves analyzing the advantages that an organization has over the others. It also entails answering the question on what the organizations does better than the others. Another point to be considered under strengths is the uniqueness or lowest-cost resources that can be drawn upon and others cannot. It is also crucial to determine the organization’s Unique Selling Proposition. Finally, the company should define the factors that mean the organization would ‘get the sale.’ The second question that should be defined before writing a SWOT analysis is the weaknesses that a company has. It is important that an organization take notes on the weaknesses in the company. The weaknesses are the issues that are within power of the business that may prevent the company from achieving its objectives or maintaining a competitive edge. It also involves the areas that the company might improve (Valentin, 2001). Weaknesses experienced may include deficiency of skills, inadequate access to technology, and bad setting of the business, among others. The third question that one would need to ask before writing the SWOT analysis is the opportunities that a business has. The opportunities help to evaluate the exterior attractive issues that represent the reason an organization exist. Opportunities are external factors of the firm. The opportunities identified reflect the potential that a business can realize if it implements the marketing strategies. The final question to consider is what the threats to the company are. The threats are factors that are beyond the control of the organization and can put the marketing strategy or the business itself at risk (Valentin, 2001). Although the organization does not have control over the threats, it can still come up with contingency plans to address them.
Many organizations or businesses have their mission statement and vision. A mission statement is a statement that outlines the purpose of the organization, person, or business. The mission statements also contain a statement of the reason for the existing of the company. It should guide the actions of the company, describe its goals, and guide the decision making process. On the other hand, a vision statement of a company is a statement that expresses the company’s optimal goal and its reason for existence. The mission statement provides a breakdown on the plans that a company has to realize the visions. It does so by identifying the service area, the values and goals of the company, and to pinpoint the target audience of the organization (Ireland, 1992). The mission statement of the county health department is: to provide excellent healthcare service to patients from all over the county and its environs with a compassionate and humane manner. The health department is a non-sectarian, voluntary institution which seeks to increase the number of Medicaid beneficiaries that are admitted to the hospital. The health department has an acute care general facility and a wide-ranging selection of ambulances and outpatient services and sites. The hospital also seeks to advance the wellbeing of the people from the county by remitting high quality healthcare, an inclusive variety of services, and a convenient and apt access of the facility with an extraordinary check and compassion. The vision statement of the county health department is: to provide exceptionally quality services, to provide unparalleled service and a god patient experience, to provide clinically integrated affiliates, provide a proper place of work and practice, and finally to foster education and programs that support central part clinical missions.
The county health department has objectives that align themselves with the SWOTs of the organization. The objectives of the firm are health related and ensure that patients receive the best treatment in the region (Scott, 2000). The objectives include:
Making services available to patients and physicians regardless of the gender of the person. In most cases, it targets women who give birth and the ones who would like to join the Medicaid beneficiaries. All women are treated the same without regards to their nationality or disability;
Make sure that the customers do not drop off the prenatal visits immediately after giving birth.
Finally, the department wants to ensure that women do not only visit the emergency rooms when giving birth or during labor; instead, they should be visiting it regularly during the course of their pregnancy.
References
Valentin, E. K. (2001). SWOT analysis from a resource-based view. Journal of marketing theory and practice, 9(2), 54-69.
Ireland, R. D., & Hirc, M. A. (1992). Mission statements: Importance, challenge, and recommendations for development. Business Horizons, 35(3), 34-42.
Scott, W. R. (2000). Institutional change and healthcare organizations: From professional dominance to managed care. University of Chicago Press.
