Case Study Description of Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing
The case relates the growth story of a transformative medical diagnostics company as it moves from idea to maturity at a critical time when leaders must determine what to do about the falling stock price. As the case unfolds, it shows how an idea for transforming cervical cancer testing was converted to a proof-of-concept, followed by years of scientific and technological research to create products. The case portrays gaining FDA approval while short on resources, persuading skeptical insurers to pay for a new diagnostic test, and managing the challenges of subsequent growth, profit, and maturity while facing the emergence of new technologies and competitors. Students are asked to adopt the role of a newly hired vice president of business development to decide how to address the company's situation. They must identify and frame the problem, generate alternatives and evaluate them critically, then prepare recommendations for an upcoming board meeting. Students take into account industry and company data as well as strategic realities. They examine what makes creating, growing, and managing a science- and medicine-based company different from doing so with other technology companies, especially consumer hardware and software with which students tend to be most familiar. Color printing of the case is recommended for clear interpretation of exhibits.
Swot Analysis of "Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing" written by Gaurab Bhardwaj, Matthew Regele includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cervical Maturity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cervical Maturity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cervical Maturity 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cervical Maturity
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 Cervical Maturity
Strengths Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cervical Maturity in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Cervical Maturity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cervical Maturity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Cervical Maturity 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 Cervical Maturity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Cervical Maturity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cervical Maturity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Cervical Maturity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Cervical Maturity 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 Gaurab Bhardwaj, Matthew Regele 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cervical Maturity digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cervical Maturity has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Strong track record of project management
– Cervical Maturity 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 Cervical Maturity 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cervical Maturity is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Cervical Maturity 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 Cervical Maturity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cervical Maturity 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Cervical Maturity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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.
Weaknesses Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cervical Maturity 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cervical Maturity 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cervical Maturity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Cervical Maturity supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cervical Maturity vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cervical Maturity products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cervical Maturity needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cervical Maturity 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cervical Maturity, firm in the HBR case study Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing HBR case study mentions - Cervical Maturity 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cervical Maturity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cervical Maturity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cervical Maturity 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 - Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing | 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing are -
Buying journey improvements
– Cervical Maturity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cervical Maturity can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cervical Maturity operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Cervical Maturity can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cervical Maturity 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cervical Maturity 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cervical Maturity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cervical Maturity 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cervical Maturity 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.
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. Cervical Maturity 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. Cervical Maturity 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.
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 Cervical Maturity in the consumer business. Now Cervical Maturity 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 Cervical Maturity has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cervical Maturity to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing case study. Cervical Maturity can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cervical Maturity to increase its market reach. Cervical Maturity will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cervical Maturity can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cervical Maturity 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cervical Maturity 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.
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
– Cervical Maturity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cervical Maturity 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.
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. Cervical Maturity will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cervical Maturity can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Cervical Maturity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Cervical Maturity
– 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 Cervical Maturity.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cervical Maturity 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 Cervical Maturity.
Regulatory challenges
– Cervical Maturity 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cervical Maturity 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cytyc: Transforming Cervical Cancer Testing 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 Cervical Maturity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.