PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History
In late 1997, Tom Casola, brand manager for Propecia, debates the best approach to market this breakthrough one-a-day pill for hair loss. This launch would be atypical for a prescription drug because of the key position of the consumer. As a result, the team's experience of past launches has little bearing on how its two available instruments, physician detailing and direct-to-consumer advertising, might play out in this case. Three issues present themselves as new: the form of advertising, the consumer message, and the balance between consumer and physician marketing efforts. The ensuing discussion allows participants to explore the goals of and interdependence between various marketing instruments.
Swot Analysis of "PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History" written by Marta Wosinska, Youngme Moon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Propecia Hair facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Leading teams, Strategic planning and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Propecia Hair, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Propecia Hair 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Propecia Hair
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 Propecia Hair
Strengths PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Propecia Hair in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Propecia Hair digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Propecia Hair 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.
Training and development
– Propecia Hair has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Propecia Hair 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Propecia Hair is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Propecia Hair 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 Propecia Hair in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Propecia Hair is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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.
Analytics focus
– Propecia Hair is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Marta Wosinska, Youngme Moon can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Propecia Hair has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Propecia Hair 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.
High brand equity
– Propecia Hair has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Propecia Hair to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Propecia Hair in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Propecia Hair in the sector have low bargaining power. PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Propecia Hair to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Propecia Hair 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 Propecia Hair supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Propecia Hair vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Propecia Hair is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Propecia Hair needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Propecia Hair to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Propecia Hair 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History HBR case study mentions - Propecia Hair 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Propecia Hair 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History, it seems that the employees of Propecia Hair 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 Propecia Hair 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Propecia Hair is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Propecia Hair is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History, 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History | 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History are -
Manufacturing automation
– Propecia Hair can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Propecia Hair 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, PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Propecia Hair can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Propecia Hair can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Propecia Hair 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Propecia Hair 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. Propecia Hair 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Propecia Hair 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Propecia Hair 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Propecia Hair to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Propecia Hair has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Propecia Hair to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History case study. Propecia Hair can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Propecia Hair can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Propecia Hair operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 Propecia Hair 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Propecia Hair can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Propecia Hair can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Propecia Hair is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Propecia Hair needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Propecia Hair 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.
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.
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 Propecia Hair in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Propecia Hair.
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. Propecia Hair can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Propecia Hair 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History, Propecia Hair may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Propecia Hair 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History .
Regulatory challenges
– Propecia Hair 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Propecia Hair
– 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 Propecia Hair.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 PROPECIA: Helping Make Hair Loss History 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 Propecia Hair needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
