Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer
Judah Folkman, professor in the Division of Vascular Biology at Children's Hospital in Boston, is considering how best to advance the research in his lab in an era where biomedical research has gotten more interdisciplinary and collaborative. Specifically, Folkman has to consider how to foster collaborations even as lab members have to contend with various incentives that propel them toward demonstrating independence for their career advancement and, hence, sometimes resisting collaboration. Also highlights trends in the academic job market as well as in funding in the biomedical research field.
Authors :: Jonathan West, Mona Ashiya, Ambuj Sagar
Swot Analysis of "Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer" written by Jonathan West, Mona Ashiya, Ambuj Sagar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Folkman Judah facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Conflict, Leadership, Motivating people, Strategy and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Folkman Judah, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Folkman Judah 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Folkman Judah
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 Folkman Judah
Strengths Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Folkman Judah in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Folkman Judah in the sector have low bargaining power. Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Folkman Judah to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Folkman Judah 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Folkman Judah
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Folkman Judah does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Folkman Judah has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Folkman Judah to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Folkman Judah is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Folkman Judah is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Folkman Judah digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Folkman Judah has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Innovation driven organization
– Folkman Judah is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Folkman Judah is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Folkman Judah in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Folkman Judah is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Folkman Judah are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Folkman Judah is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jonathan West, Mona Ashiya, Ambuj Sagar suggests that, Folkman Judah is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Folkman Judah is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer, in the dynamic environment Folkman Judah has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Folkman Judah has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Folkman Judah is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Folkman Judah has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Folkman Judah 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Folkman Judah has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Folkman Judah 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 Folkman Judah products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Folkman Judah needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Folkman Judah, firm in the HBR case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Folkman Judah is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Folkman Judah needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Folkman Judah to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer | 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Folkman Judah 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Folkman Judah to increase its market reach. Folkman Judah 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Folkman Judah 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Folkman Judah to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Folkman Judah to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Folkman Judah has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Folkman Judah to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Folkman Judah can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Folkman Judah 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Folkman Judah can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Folkman Judah to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Manufacturing automation
– Folkman Judah can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Folkman Judah can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Folkman Judah operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Folkman Judah 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. Folkman Judah 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Folkman Judah 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, Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Folkman Judah 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Folkman Judah 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Folkman Judah with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Folkman Judah demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer, Folkman Judah 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Folkman Judah 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. Folkman Judah can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Folkman Judah business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Folkman Judah has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Folkman Judah needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Folkman Judah can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer .
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. Folkman Judah can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Folkman Judah
– 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 Folkman Judah.
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 Folkman Judah in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer 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 Folkman Judah needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
