Case Study Description of Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation
Highlights the issues involved in the launch of an infertility product and procedure that allows women to become pregnant without having to undergo unpleasant hormone stimulation or experience dangerous side effects. In bringing its product to market, Medi-Cult, a small biotechnology company, must deal with regulatory constraints, larger competitors, and the challenges of introducing a new product into the local and global marketplace. Questions raised are: Should the product be priced according to its perceived value? Should Medi-Cult pursue a penetration or market skimming strategy in pricing the new product? How will the contribution margin be affected if a global, regional, or multinational pricing strategy is chosen? What are the ethical issues in pricing pharmaceuticals?
Swot Analysis of "Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation" written by Brian Rogers, Nirmalya Kumar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Medi Cult facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Marketing, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Medi Cult, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Medi Cult 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Medi Cult
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 Medi Cult
Strengths Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Medi Cult in Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Medi Cult has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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.
High brand equity
– Medi Cult has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Medi Cult to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Medi Cult
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Medi Cult does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Medi Cult is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Medi Cult has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Medi Cult 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Medi Cult is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Medi Cult 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Medi Cult to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Medi Cult to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Medi Cult 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 Brian Rogers, Nirmalya Kumar 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 lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Medi Cult 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 Medi Cult in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Medi Cult 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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.
Weaknesses Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Medi Cult 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Medi Cult is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Medi Cult needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Medi Cult to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Medi Cult 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Medi Cult is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Medi Cult has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Brian Rogers, Nirmalya Kumar suggests that, Medi Cult 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi Cult 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Medi Cult 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi Cult has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Medi Cult 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. Medi Cult 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.
Opportunities Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation | 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation are -
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. Medi Cult can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Medi Cult 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Medi Cult can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Medi Cult 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. Medi Cult 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. Medi Cult 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Medi Cult to increase its market reach. Medi Cult 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Medi Cult 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
– Medi Cult 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Medi Cult can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Medi Cult 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 Medi Cult to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Medi Cult 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Medi Cult 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Medi Cult 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.
Threats Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation are -
Increasing wage structure of Medi Cult
– 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 Medi Cult.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Medi Cult 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Medi Cult is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation, Medi Cult 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 .
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. Medi Cult 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Medi Cult has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Medi Cult 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Medi Cult 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.
Environmental challenges
– Medi Cult 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. Medi Cult can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Medi Cult can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Medi Cult 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation .
Regulatory challenges
– Medi Cult 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.
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 Medi Cult business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation 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 Medi Cult needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.