Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions
In 2012, Graham's Pharmacy opened to offer more traditional pharmacy services and counselling in contrast to franchise pharmacies. The business was the brainchild of a pharmacist and entrepreneur with a strong commitment to the pharmacist profession. Located in the heart of the historic business sector of Kingston, Ontario, Graham's Pharmacy had taken over a historic building that formerly housed a bank. The pharmacy was intended to improve the quality of life of its clients through prevention and active engagement, rather than merely through the passive and mundane role of a pill dispensary. However, the pharmacy needed to be profitable if the vision was to be fully realized. Although the founder was confident in the capabilities of his team, and that a market existed for a pharmacy that provided personalized service and advice, he wondered how to market the business in light of competition from much larger rivals. Nicole BA?rubA? is affiliated with Royal Military College of Canada.
Swot Analysis of "Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions" written by Nicole Berube, R. Frank Delanghe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pharmacy Graham's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pharmacy Graham's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pharmacy Graham's 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pharmacy Graham's
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 Pharmacy Graham's
Strengths Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pharmacy Graham's in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pharmacy Graham's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pharmacy Graham's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pharmacy Graham's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pharmacy Graham's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Pharmacy Graham's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pharmacy Graham's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Pharmacy Graham's 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 Nicole Berube, R. Frank Delanghe 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
– Pharmacy Graham's 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 Pharmacy Graham's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pharmacy Graham's 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 Pharmacy Graham's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pharmacy Graham's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Pharmacy Graham's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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)
– Pharmacy Graham's 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pharmacy Graham's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Pharmacy Graham's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pharmacy Graham's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions, it seems that the employees of Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pharmacy Graham's, firm in the HBR case study Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions HBR case study mentions - Pharmacy Graham's takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pharmacy Graham's 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions, in the dynamic environment Pharmacy Graham's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pharmacy Graham's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pharmacy Graham's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pharmacy Graham's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Pharmacy Graham's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Opportunities Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions | 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pharmacy Graham's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pharmacy Graham's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pharmacy Graham's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions case study. Pharmacy Graham's 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 Pharmacy Graham's 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 Pharmacy Graham's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Pharmacy Graham's 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. Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pharmacy Graham's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pharmacy Graham's 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, Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pharmacy Graham's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pharmacy Graham's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pharmacy Graham's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Pharmacy Graham's 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.
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. Pharmacy Graham's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pharmacy Graham's 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.
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 Pharmacy Graham's.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pharmacy Graham's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Pharmacy Graham's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Pharmacy Graham's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pharmacy Graham's 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. Pharmacy Graham's 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions, Pharmacy Graham's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Environmental challenges
– Pharmacy Graham's 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. Pharmacy Graham's 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. Pharmacy Graham's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pharmacy Graham's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pharmacy Graham's 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 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Graham's Pharmacy: Traditional Care, Modern Solutions 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 Pharmacy Graham's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
