Case Study Description of Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord
Acorda is an early-stage life science start-up with a promising product that is close to reaching the market (Phase III clinical trials). The company is grappling with how to expand its portfolio of molecules to make the business more sustainable. It faces classic in-licensing choices, including what disease indication, what stage of development, how many molecules, and on what terms.
Authors :: Fiona Murray, Marina Kolesnik, Juan Enriquez, Jonathan West
Swot Analysis of "Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord" written by Fiona Murray, Marina Kolesnik, Juan Enriquez, Jonathan West includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Acorda Molecules facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Financial management, Intellectual property and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Acorda Molecules, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Acorda Molecules
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Acorda Molecules
Strengths Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Acorda Molecules in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Acorda Molecules in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Acorda Molecules is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Acorda Molecules has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Acorda Molecules to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Acorda Molecules has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Learning organization
- Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Molecules is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Acorda Molecules has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Acorda Molecules 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Acorda Molecules to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Acorda Molecules to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Acorda Molecules is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Acorda Molecules 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.
Weaknesses Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Acorda Molecules is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Fiona Murray, Marina Kolesnik, Juan Enriquez, Jonathan West suggests that, Acorda Molecules is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord, in the dynamic environment Acorda Molecules has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Acorda Molecules has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord HBR case study mentions - Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Molecules has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Acorda Molecules 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. Acorda Molecules 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord, it seems that the employees of Acorda Molecules 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Acorda Molecules 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, Acorda Molecules is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord, is just above the industry average. Acorda Molecules 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Acorda Molecules, firm in the HBR case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord | 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord are -
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 Acorda Molecules 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Acorda Molecules can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Acorda Molecules operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Acorda Molecules 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. Acorda Molecules 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Acorda Molecules 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Acorda Molecules 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 Technology & Operations segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Acorda Molecules 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Acorda Molecules can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Acorda Molecules in the consumer business. Now Acorda Molecules can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Acorda Molecules to increase its market reach. Acorda Molecules 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Acorda Molecules in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Acorda Molecules is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Acorda Molecules has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Acorda Molecules to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord case study. Acorda Molecules can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Acorda Molecules 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 Acorda Molecules to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Acorda Molecules 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord, Acorda Molecules may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Acorda Molecules 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.
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. Acorda Molecules needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Acorda Molecules 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.
Environmental challenges
– Acorda Molecules 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. Acorda Molecules can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Acorda Molecules is facing in Technology & Operations 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 Acorda Molecules.
Increasing wage structure of Acorda Molecules
– 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 Acorda Molecules.
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. Acorda Molecules 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.
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 Acorda Molecules in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Acorda Molecules can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Therapeutics: Rebuilding the Spinal Cord 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 Acorda Molecules needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
