Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History
Genzyme Corp.'s financing history is unusual compared to most biotech companies. This case presents the sequence of financings employed by Genzyme, along with the product--market and corporate-development strategies adopted by Henri Termeer, Genzyme's CEO. As such, the case permits students to evaluate the sequence of financings as a "program" rather than a series of unrelated deals and to consider them in light of the business strategy.
Swot Analysis of "Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History" written by Timothy A. Luehrman, Andrew D. Regan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Genzyme Financings facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Financial markets, Growth strategy, Marketing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Genzyme Financings, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Genzyme Financings
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Genzyme Financings
Strengths Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Genzyme Financings in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Genzyme Financings in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Financings in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Genzyme Financings in the sector have low bargaining power. Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Genzyme Financings to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Genzyme Financings has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Genzyme Financings to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Genzyme Financings has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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.
Learning organization
- Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Financings is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Genzyme Financings 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Genzyme Financings to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Genzyme Financings to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Genzyme Financings
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Genzyme Financings does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Genzyme Financings is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Genzyme Financings is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Genzyme Financings is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Timothy A. Luehrman, Andrew D. Regan suggests that, Genzyme Financings 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Genzyme Financings 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Genzyme Financings, firm in the HBR case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Financings has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Genzyme Financings supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Genzyme Financings vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History, it seems that the employees of Genzyme Financings 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Genzyme Financings products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Genzyme Financings needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Genzyme Financings is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Genzyme Financings is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Genzyme Financings needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Genzyme Financings to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History, is just above the industry average. Genzyme Financings 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.
Opportunities Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History | 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Genzyme Financings 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, Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Genzyme Financings 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.
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 Genzyme Financings in the consumer business. Now Genzyme Financings can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Genzyme Financings has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Genzyme Financings to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History case study. Genzyme Financings can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Genzyme Financings has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Genzyme Financings can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Genzyme Financings operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Genzyme Financings 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Genzyme Financings 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Genzyme Financings can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Genzyme Financings can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Genzyme Financings can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Genzyme Financings is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Genzyme Financings in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History are -
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 Genzyme Financings in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Genzyme Financings 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Financings is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Genzyme Financings 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Genzyme Financings with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Genzyme Financings has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Genzyme Financings needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History, Genzyme Financings may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Genzyme Financings 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Genzyme Financings 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History .
Regulatory challenges
– Genzyme Financings 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Corp.: A Financing History 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 Genzyme Financings needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
