Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader
This case traces the inception to rise of Telma, the flagship brand of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, over its decade of existence. Telma based on the molecular formulation Telmisartan was introduced by Glenmark in 2003 at a time when the most preferred and market-leading molecule for treating hypertension was Ramipril. This case, not only showcases the brand-building programs undertaken by Glenmark through the life of Telma, but also traces the marketing efforts that go into creating a new category that would then go on to become the market leader. The case also introduces students to the evolving regulatory framework that has shaped pharmaceutical marketing practices of generics manufacturers in India since independence.
Swot Analysis of "Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader" written by Sreelata Jonnalagedda, Ami Shah includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Telma Glenmark facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Telma Glenmark, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Telma Glenmark 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Telma Glenmark
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 Telma Glenmark
Strengths Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Telma Glenmark in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Telma Glenmark
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Telma Glenmark does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Telma Glenmark is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Telma Glenmark is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Telma Glenmark in the sector have low bargaining power. Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Telma Glenmark to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Telma Glenmark 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Telma Glenmark digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Telma Glenmark 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
– Telma Glenmark 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 Telma Glenmark in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Telma Glenmark to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Telma Glenmark to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Telma Glenmark 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Telma Glenmark 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.
High brand equity
– Telma Glenmark has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Telma Glenmark to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Telma Glenmark is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Telma Glenmark 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Telma Glenmark 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma Glenmark has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma Glenmark 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, it seems that the employees of Telma Glenmark 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, in the dynamic environment Telma Glenmark has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Telma Glenmark has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Telma Glenmark 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, is just above the industry average. Telma Glenmark 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Telma Glenmark 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 - Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Telma Glenmark products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Telma Glenmark needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader | 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma Glenmark in the consumer business. Now Telma Glenmark can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Telma Glenmark to increase its market reach. Telma Glenmark 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
– Telma Glenmark 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Telma Glenmark 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 Telma Glenmark 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, Telma Glenmark 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Telma Glenmark has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Telma Glenmark to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader case study. Telma Glenmark can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Telma Glenmark can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Telma Glenmark 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, Telma Glenmark is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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, Telma Glenmark 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, Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Telma Glenmark 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Telma Glenmark can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Telma Glenmark 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Telma Glenmark to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Telma Glenmark 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader are -
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 Telma Glenmark.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Telma Glenmark needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader, Telma Glenmark 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Telma Glenmark 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.
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.
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, Telma Glenmark 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Telma Glenmark 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.
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. Telma Glenmark 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. Telma Glenmark can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Telma Glenmark 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Telma Glenmark with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Telma Glenmark has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Telma Glenmark 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma: Building and Defending a Market Leader 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 Telma Glenmark needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
