QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England
QuintilesIMS was a leading healthcare consulting firm best known for its data and information offerings, as well as its market research and management consulting services for life science companies. By 2015, the company was expanding beyond the biopharmaceutical industry, offering analytical services to healthcare systems, like the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK). In June, 2015, QuintilesIMS published a study highlighting inconsistencies in the care of RA patients in England. In particular, the company considered the current use of biologic medications to treat RA in England, as well how the introduction of biosimilar medications might affect costs to the NHS and medication access for patients. Students must use epidemiology, cost, and market share information given in the case to estimate potential cost savings one year after the introduction of biosimilars. The case also explores qualitative questions around the appropriate communication with patients and the role of QuintilesIMS.
Swot Analysis of "QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England" written by John A. Quelch, Emily C. Boudreau includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Quintilesims Biosimilar facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Quintilesims Biosimilar, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Quintilesims Biosimilar
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 Quintilesims Biosimilar
Strengths QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Quintilesims Biosimilar in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Organizational Resilience of Quintilesims Biosimilar
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Quintilesims Biosimilar does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Quintilesims Biosimilar is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Quintilesims Biosimilar has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Quintilesims Biosimilar is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Quintilesims Biosimilar has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 John A. Quelch, Emily C. Boudreau 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.
Training and development
– Quintilesims Biosimilar has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Quintilesims Biosimilar has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Quintilesims Biosimilar to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 - QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England, is just above the industry average. Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England, in the dynamic environment Quintilesims Biosimilar has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Quintilesims Biosimilar has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England, it seems that the employees of Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Quintilesims Biosimilar products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Quintilesims Biosimilar needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Quintilesims Biosimilar is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Quintilesims Biosimilar needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Quintilesims Biosimilar to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England | 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar in the consumer business. Now Quintilesims Biosimilar can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Quintilesims Biosimilar 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. Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Quintilesims Biosimilar has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Quintilesims Biosimilar to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England case study. Quintilesims Biosimilar can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Quintilesims Biosimilar to increase its market reach. Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Quintilesims Biosimilar to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Quintilesims Biosimilar can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Quintilesims Biosimilar operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Quintilesims Biosimilar can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England are -
Regulatory challenges
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
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 Quintilesims Biosimilar.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 .
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Quintilesims Biosimilar
– 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Quintilesims Biosimilar with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Quintilesims Biosimilar in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Quintilesims Biosimilar has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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.
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 Quintilesims Biosimilar business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Quintilesims Biosimilar 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England 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 Quintilesims Biosimilar needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.