Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version
Provides a broad overview of the numerous internal and external forces that were driving change in the global pharmaceutical industry in 2003. These forces--including downward price pressures, political and social pressures, increased development costs, new technologies, new and different competitors, consolidation, and threats to its basic business models--were changing the way drugs were discovered, developed, manufactured, tested, regulated, marketed, sold, and purchased. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Swot Analysis of "Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version" written by Stephen P. Bradley, James Weber includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pressures Forces facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pressures Forces, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pressures Forces 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pressures Forces
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 Pressures Forces
Strengths Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pressures Forces in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pressures Forces 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Pressures Forces 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 Stephen P. Bradley, James Weber 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.
Learning organization
- Pressures Forces 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 Pressures Forces is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pressures Forces 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pressures Forces 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pressures Forces to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pressures Forces to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pressures Forces in the sector have low bargaining power. Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pressures Forces to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Pressures Forces
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pressures Forces does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Pressures Forces 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 Pressures Forces in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Pressures Forces has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pressures Forces to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pressures Forces in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Pressures Forces 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pressures Forces has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pressures Forces 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pressures Forces 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pressures Forces has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Pressures Forces even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pressures Forces is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pressures Forces is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pressures Forces is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Pressures Forces needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pressures Forces to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pressures Forces 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pressures Forces 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 - Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pressures Forces 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.
Opportunities Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version | 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pressures Forces 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 Pressures Forces to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Pressures Forces in the consumer business. Now Pressures Forces can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pressures Forces can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing 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, Pressures Forces can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pressures Forces operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Pressures Forces 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. Pressures Forces 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pressures Forces 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.
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 Pressures Forces 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pressures Forces 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pressures Forces 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pressures Forces 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, Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pressures Forces can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Pressures Forces can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pressures Forces 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pressures Forces 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, Pressures Forces 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version .
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. Pressures Forces needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Pressures Forces in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pressures Forces is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Pressures Forces.
Regulatory challenges
– Pressures Forces 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pressures Forces has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pressures Forces needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Increasing wage structure of Pressures Forces
– 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 Pressures Forces.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version, Pressures Forces may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pressures Forces 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pressures Forces with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges in the New Century, Spanish Version 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 Pressures Forces needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.