Quest Diagnostics Incorporated SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Quest Diagnostics Incorporated managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is a handy technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is facing in its current business environment.

The Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated maintains its prominent position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis a highly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the company such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.


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The SWOT Analysis framework helps an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Quest Diagnostics Incorporated to develop four types of strategies:

• SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
• WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
• ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
•  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Quest Diagnostics Incorporated strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Quest Diagnostics Incorporated SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated are –

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• Strong Free Cash Flow – Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Superb Performance in New Markets – Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has built expertise at entering new markets and making success of them. The expansion has helped the organization to build new revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the markets it operates in.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees resulting in a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
• High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.

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Weakness of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Quest Diagnostics Incorporated can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where an organization can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

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• Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
• Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated are below the industry average.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
• There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.
• Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.

Opportunities for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated – External Strategic Factors

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• Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated in other product categories.
• New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Quest Diagnostics Incorporated to increase its profitability.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated.
• Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Quest Diagnostics Incorporated an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Quest Diagnostics Incorporated to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.

Threats Quest Diagnostics Incorporated Facing - External Strategic Factors

• The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
• No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
• Liability laws in different countries are different and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
• As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

• Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
• SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
• The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
• SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
• SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Quest Diagnostics Incorporated managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

You can email us to get an example document of Weighted SWOT analysis.

SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

References / Citations & Bibliography

• M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
• A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
• O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
• L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
• R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)