Case Study Description of Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker
Describes a firm that markets a laser for a fictional problem. Asks readers to evaluate Scopie's marketing and production strategy (it plans to start in India and then expand to the United States) and its long-term viability.
Swot Analysis of "Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker" written by Regina E. Herzlinger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Scopie's Gland facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Scopie's Gland, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Scopie's Gland
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 Scopie's Gland
Strengths Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Scopie's Gland in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Scopie's Gland to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Scopie's Gland to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Scopie's Gland 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.
Analytics focus
– Scopie's Gland 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 Regina E. Herzlinger 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Scopie's Gland is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Scopie's Gland digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Scopie's Gland 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Gland in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Scopie's Gland in the sector have low bargaining power. Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Scopie's Gland to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Scopie's Gland has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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.
Learning organization
- Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Gland is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Scopie's Gland is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Scopie's Gland has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Scopie's Gland to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker HBR case study mentions - Scopie's Gland 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Scopie's Gland 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Scopie's Gland 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Scopie's Gland 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. Scopie's Gland 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Scopie's Gland products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Scopie's Gland needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Gland 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Regina E. Herzlinger suggests that, Scopie's Gland 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker, it seems that the employees of Scopie's Gland 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Scopie's Gland 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 - Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker | 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Scopie's Gland can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Scopie's Gland operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Scopie's Gland can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Scopie's Gland can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Scopie's Gland to increase its market reach. Scopie's Gland 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Scopie's Gland 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Scopie's Gland can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Scopie's Gland in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Scopie's Gland 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Scopie's Gland 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Scopie's Gland to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Scopie's Gland in the consumer business. Now Scopie's Gland can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Scopie's Gland 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Scopie's Gland is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Scopie's Gland 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, Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker, 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker are -
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.
Increasing wage structure of Scopie's Gland
– 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 Scopie's Gland.
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 Scopie's Gland business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Scopie's Gland in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Scopie's Gland 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.
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. Scopie's Gland can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Scopie's Gland has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Scopie's Gland needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Scopie's Gland 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker, Scopie's Gland 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Scopie's Gland 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. Scopie's Gland can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Scopie's Gland 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Scopie's Gland 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Scopie's Gland is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Enlarged Gland Shrinker 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 Scopie's Gland needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
