Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry
This case describes the challenges pharmaceutical multinational corporations (MNCs) face in understanding and navigating the intricacies of patent law in India and what they can learn from key pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) cases being fought in the nation's courts. Like most emerging markets, India is both an exciting new market opportunity for MNCs and a challenging and complex environment in which to operate. For instance, while the patent protection afforded to products and processes is stringent, at least on paper, its enforcement has often been problematic for MNCs and has thwarted MNCs efforts to operate profitably in India. The case study discusses some of the recent judgments handed down by the Indian courts in high-profile pharmaceutical IP cases (such as Novartis' Glivec and Bayer's Nexavar) with a view to helping students formulate strategies to overcome value appropriation problems in India.
Swot Analysis of "Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry" written by Mridula Anand, Anand Nandkumar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mncs Courts facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mncs Courts, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mncs Courts
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 Mncs Courts
Strengths Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mncs Courts in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mncs Courts to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mncs Courts to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mncs Courts in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Mncs Courts 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 Mncs Courts in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Mncs Courts is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Mncs Courts has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mncs Courts are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Mncs Courts
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mncs Courts does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mncs Courts is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Mncs Courts is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mncs Courts is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, is just above the industry average. Mncs Courts 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mncs Courts 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mncs Courts 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mncs Courts is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mncs Courts 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mncs Courts 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mncs Courts is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Mncs Courts needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mncs Courts to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, in the dynamic environment Mncs Courts has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mncs Courts has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Mncs Courts supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mncs Courts vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Mncs Courts has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry | 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mncs Courts 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.
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. Mncs Courts can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mncs Courts to increase its market reach. Mncs Courts 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mncs Courts 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mncs Courts 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 Mncs Courts to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mncs Courts to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mncs Courts 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mncs Courts can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mncs Courts operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mncs Courts 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, Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Mncs Courts 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mncs Courts can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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.
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 Mncs Courts in the consumer business. Now Mncs Courts can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mncs Courts to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mncs Courts 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.
Increasing wage structure of Mncs Courts
– 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 Mncs Courts.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mncs Courts is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mncs Courts 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mncs Courts 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry, Mncs Courts 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 .
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 Mncs Courts business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Mncs Courts 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mncs Courts 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. Mncs Courts can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Mncs Courts in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry .
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. Mncs Courts can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mncs Courts 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Patents and Competitive Dynamics in the Indian Pharma Industry 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 Mncs Courts needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.