Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic
The spread of bird flu outside of Asia, particularly in Africa and Europe, topped headlines in 2006. The migration of wild birds brought the virus to Europe, where for the first time it spread to productive livestock, bringing it closer to the Western world. Due to today's globalized and highly interconnected world, the consequences of a potential bird flu pandemic are expected to be much more severe than those of the Spanish flu, which killed 50-100 million people between 1918 and 1921. A vaccine for the bird virus is currently not available. As of July 2006, 232 cases of human infection had been documented, mostly through direct contact with poultry. Of those, 134 people died. The best medication available to treat bird flu was Roche's antiviral drug TamifluA?. However, Tamiflu was not widely available; current orders of government bodies would not be fulfilled until the end of 2008. Well aware that today's avian flu might become a global pandemic comparable to the Spanish flu, Roche CEO Franz Humer had to decide how Roche should respond. While the pharmaceutical industry continued its research efforts on vaccines and medications, Tamiflu could play an important role by protecting healthcare workers and helping to contain the virus-or at least slow down its spread. Due to patent protection and a complicated production process with scarce raw ingredients, Roche had been the only producer of the drug. Partly in response to U.S. political pressure, in November 2005 Roche allowed Gilead to produce Tamiflu as well. Even so, it would take at least until late 2007 for Roche and Gilead to meet the orders of governments worldwide. The issue was a difficult one for Roche: What were the risks; what were the opportunities? If a pandemic occurred before sufficient stockpiles of Tamiflu had been built up, would Roche be held responsible? What steps, if any, should Roche take with respect to patent protection and production licensing in the shadow of a potential pandemic?
Authors :: Timothy Feddersen, Jochen Gottschalk, Lars Peters
Swot Analysis of "Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic" written by Timothy Feddersen, Jochen Gottschalk, Lars Peters includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Roche Tamiflu facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, International business, Leadership, Strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roche Tamiflu, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roche Tamiflu
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Roche Tamiflu
Strengths Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Roche Tamiflu in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Roche Tamiflu digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Roche Tamiflu 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.
High brand equity
– Roche Tamiflu has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Roche Tamiflu to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Roche Tamiflu has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roche Tamiflu 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Roche Tamiflu 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.
Organizational Resilience of Roche Tamiflu
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Roche Tamiflu does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Roche Tamiflu has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Roche Tamiflu is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Roche Tamiflu is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Roche Tamiflu 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 - Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Roche Tamiflu 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Roche Tamiflu products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Roche Tamiflu needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Roche Tamiflu has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Roche Tamiflu even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Roche Tamiflu 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Roche Tamiflu supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Roche Tamiflu vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Roche Tamiflu has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Roche Tamiflu needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic HBR case study mentions - Roche Tamiflu 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Roche Tamiflu, firm in the HBR case study Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic | 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Roche Tamiflu has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Roche Tamiflu to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic case study. Roche Tamiflu can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Roche Tamiflu can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Developing new processes and practices
– Roche Tamiflu can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche Tamiflu to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Roche Tamiflu 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Roche Tamiflu can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Roche Tamiflu can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Roche Tamiflu in the consumer business. Now Roche Tamiflu can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Roche Tamiflu to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Roche Tamiflu to increase its market reach. Roche Tamiflu 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.
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 Roche Tamiflu 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Roche Tamiflu 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, Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Roche Tamiflu 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.
Threats Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic are -
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.
Increasing wage structure of Roche Tamiflu
– 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 Roche Tamiflu.
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 Roche Tamiflu.
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. Roche Tamiflu needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Roche Tamiflu in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Roche Tamiflu 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.
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. Roche Tamiflu 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.
Environmental challenges
– Roche Tamiflu 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. Roche Tamiflu can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Roche Tamiflu 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Roche Tamiflu is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Roche Tamiflu can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roche Tamiflu in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche and Tamiflu: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic 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 Roche Tamiflu needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.