In 2001, Dr. Brian Brink, senior vice-president of Anglo American, a massive South African mining conglomerate, was debating how to confront the ravages that extremely high HIV/AIDS rates were taking on Anglo's workforce and overall productivity. According to the firm's best estimates, 21% of Anglo American's workforce was HIV-positive in 2001. Specifically, Dr. Brink was debating the merits of adding a potentially costly antiretroviral component to the existing HIV/AIDS program. Looks at the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on the Anglo workforce; examines the strategic, cost/benefit, and corporate social responsibility issues involved in offering the antiretroviral drug program to workers; contrasts Anglo's programs with its key competitors; and considers the financial, implementation, and political challenges involved in launching the antiretroviral program.
Authors :: Joel Podolny, Kanika Bahl, John Newsome
Topics :: Strategy & Execution
Tags :: Emerging markets, Global strategy, Health, Operations management, Personnel policies, Productivity, Risk management, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Anglo American (A)" written by Joel Podolny, Kanika Bahl, John Newsome includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Anglo Antiretroviral facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Anglo American (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Global strategy, Health, Operations management, Personnel policies, Productivity, Risk management, Social enterprise, Social responsibility and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Anglo American (A) casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Anglo American (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Anglo American (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo Antiretroviral, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo American (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Anglo American (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Anglo Antiretroviral
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Anglo Antiretroviral
Strengths Anglo American (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Anglo Antiretroviral in Anglo American (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Anglo Antiretroviral has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Learning organization
- Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo Antiretroviral is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Anglo American (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Anglo Antiretroviral in the sector have low bargaining power. Anglo American (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Anglo Antiretroviral to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Anglo Antiretroviral is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Anglo Antiretroviral 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 brand equity
– Anglo Antiretroviral has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Anglo Antiretroviral to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Anglo Antiretroviral in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Anglo Antiretroviral is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Anglo American (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Anglo Antiretroviral is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Anglo American (A) 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.
Analytics focus
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Joel Podolny, Kanika Bahl, John Newsome 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo American (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Anglo American (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Anglo American (A) are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Anglo American (A), it seems that the employees of Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Anglo Antiretroviral has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Anglo Antiretroviral is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Anglo American (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Anglo Antiretroviral products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Anglo Antiretroviral needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Anglo Antiretroviral 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 - Anglo American (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo Antiretroviral 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Anglo Antiretroviral is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Anglo Antiretroviral needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Anglo Antiretroviral to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo American (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Anglo Antiretroviral is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Anglo American (A) | 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 Anglo American (A) are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo Antiretroviral to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Anglo Antiretroviral can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Anglo Antiretroviral can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Anglo American (A) 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Anglo Antiretroviral 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. Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo American (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Anglo Antiretroviral to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Anglo Antiretroviral in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Anglo Antiretroviral can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Anglo Antiretroviral 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, Anglo American (A), 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, Anglo Antiretroviral is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Anglo American (A) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo Antiretroviral has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Anglo Antiretroviral to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Anglo American (A) case study. Anglo Antiretroviral can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo American (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Anglo American (A) are -
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. Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
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.
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. Anglo Antiretroviral needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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. Anglo Antiretroviral can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Anglo Antiretroviral in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Anglo Antiretroviral can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Anglo Antiretroviral
– 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 Anglo Antiretroviral.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Anglo American (A) .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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.
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 Anglo Antiretroviral in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Anglo Antiretroviral 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo American (A) 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 Anglo Antiretroviral needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
