SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa
In 2005, USAID and the U.S. PresidentA?s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), created the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) to procure and distribute essential medicines and supplies; provide technical assistance to transform existing supply chains; and collaborated with in-country and global partners to coordinate efforts. The new US Global Health Initiative (GHI) initialized in 2010 sought to build on these efforts through strengthened platforms and systems. PEPFAR's five-year strategy, as contribution to the GHI, focused on transitioning the program from an emergency response to a sustainable, country-owned effort. The case describes the general approach designed by SCMS, the intricacies of its successful implementation in Ethiopia, and the challenges moving forward in that country.
Authors :: Ananth Raman, Noel Watson, Santiago Kraiselburd, Emmanuel Akili
Swot Analysis of "SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa" written by Ananth Raman, Noel Watson, Santiago Kraiselburd, Emmanuel Akili includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Scms Ghi facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Health, Strategy, Supply chain and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Scms Ghi, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Scms Ghi 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 SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Scms Ghi
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Scms Ghi
Strengths SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Scms Ghi in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Scms Ghi has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Scms Ghi has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Innovation driven organization
– Scms Ghi is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Scms Ghi is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Scms Ghi is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa case study 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Scms Ghi to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Scms Ghi to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Scms Ghi has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Scms Ghi to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Scms Ghi
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Scms Ghi does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Scms Ghi has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Scms Ghi has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Scms Ghi has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Scms Ghi in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa are -
Need for greater diversity
– Scms Ghi has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Scms Ghi, firm in the HBR case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Scms Ghi has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Scms Ghi 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa HBR case study mentions - Scms Ghi takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Scms Ghi is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Scms Ghi needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Scms Ghi to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Scms Ghi has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa, in the dynamic environment Scms Ghi has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Scms Ghi has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa, it seems that the employees of Scms Ghi don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Scms Ghi 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 industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of Scms Ghi products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Scms Ghi needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Scms Ghi 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Scms Ghi has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Scms Ghi to increase its market reach. Scms Ghi 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Scms Ghi has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Scms Ghi to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa case study. Scms Ghi can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Scms Ghi can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Scms Ghi can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Scms Ghi 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Scms Ghi 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. Scms Ghi 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Scms Ghi in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Scms Ghi can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Scms Ghi can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Scms Ghi 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, as suggested in case study, SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Scms Ghi 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.
Threats SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Scms Ghi high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
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. Scms Ghi 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa, Scms Ghi may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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 Scms Ghi.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Scms Ghi can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Scms Ghi in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Scms Ghi
– 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 Scms Ghi.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Scms Ghi 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. Scms Ghi can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Scms Ghi needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Scms Ghi can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Scms Ghi needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa 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 the case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa 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 the Harvard case study SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa 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 SCMS: Battling HIV/AIDS in Africa is 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 Scms Ghi needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
