Swot Analysis of "Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment" written by George S. Yip includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Blank Scorpio facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Market research, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Blank Scorpio, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Blank Scorpio 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Blank Scorpio
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 Blank Scorpio
Strengths Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Blank Scorpio in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Blank Scorpio is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Blank Scorpio has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Blank Scorpio 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Blank Scorpio is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Blank Scorpio in the sector have low bargaining power. Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Blank Scorpio to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Blank Scorpio 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 Blank Scorpio is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Blank Scorpio has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Blank Scorpio to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Blank Scorpio is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Blank Scorpio 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 George S. Yip 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.
Organizational Resilience of Blank Scorpio
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Blank Scorpio does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Blank Scorpio is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Blank Scorpio 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Blank Scorpio 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 - Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment, is just above the industry average. Blank Scorpio needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Blank Scorpio has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High 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 Blank Scorpio supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Blank Scorpio vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Blank Scorpio 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Blank Scorpio 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, George S. Yip suggests that, Blank Scorpio 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Blank Scorpio 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. Blank Scorpio 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Blank Scorpio is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Blank Scorpio needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Blank Scorpio to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment | 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment are -
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 Blank Scorpio in the consumer business. Now Blank Scorpio can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Blank Scorpio 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Blank Scorpio can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Blank Scorpio operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Blank Scorpio is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Blank Scorpio has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Blank Scorpio to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment case study. Blank Scorpio can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Blank Scorpio 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Blank Scorpio 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Blank Scorpio 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. Blank Scorpio can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Blank Scorpio 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 Blank Scorpio to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Blank Scorpio 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Blank Scorpio can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Blank Scorpio 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.
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 Blank Scorpio 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.
Threats Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment are -
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. Blank Scorpio 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.
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. Blank Scorpio can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Blank Scorpio 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment .
Environmental challenges
– Blank Scorpio 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. Blank Scorpio can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Blank Scorpio 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
– Blank Scorpio 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Blank Scorpio 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Blank Scorpio 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Blank Scorpio 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Blank Scorpio has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Blank Scorpio 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.
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 Blank Scorpio in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Blank Scorpio business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (C), Student Assignment 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 Blank Scorpio needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
