Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency
BY-HEALTH Co., Ltd. (BY-HEALTH), a Chinese dietary supplement company founded in 1995, had a first-mover advantage as a contemporary health supplement provider in Mainland China. It had successfully utilized this advantage to conquer a significant portion of the market. However, by early 2017, maintaining this leadership position in the market had become increasingly difficult, largely due to deteriorating public perception of consumables originating in China. BY-HEALTH had sought to differentiate itself by actively making its sourcing and production processes fully transparent to stakeholders, most notably by opening a transparent factory in Guangdong Province. While BY-HEALTH's transparent factory and corporate social responsibility activities developed consumer trust and positively contributed to the environment within which the company operated, they were also prohibitively expensive to maintain. It was also difficult to determine how they affected the company's bottom line. As he prepared for a company shareholders' meeting in January 2017, the company's chief operating officer was faced with difficult questions. What programs should the company continue to invest in for the future? Should some of these initiatives have an end date? If they were ended, what effect would this have on the community? How could he communicate the value of the transparent factory to consumers and shareholders? Denghua Yuan is affiliated with Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. William Wei is affiliated with MacEwan University.
Authors :: Denghua Yuan, William Wei, Matthew Mardres
Swot Analysis of "Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency" written by Denghua Yuan, William Wei, Matthew Mardres includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Transparent Health facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Transparency and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Transparent Health, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Transparent Health 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Transparent Health
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Transparent Health
Strengths Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Transparent Health in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Transparent Health 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 Transparent Health in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Transparent Health in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Transparent Health 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Transparent Health is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Transparent Health is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Transparent Health to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Transparent Health to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Transparent Health has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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.
Analytics focus
– Transparent Health 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 Denghua Yuan, William Wei, Matthew Mardres 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Transparent Health 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Transparent Health in the sector have low bargaining power. Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Transparent Health to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Transparent Health is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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.
Weaknesses Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency are -
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 Transparent Health supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Transparent Health vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Transparent Health 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 - Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Transparent Health products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Transparent Health needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Denghua Yuan, William Wei, Matthew Mardres suggests that, Transparent Health 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Transparent Health is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Transparent Health needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Transparent Health to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Transparent Health is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency HBR case study mentions - Transparent Health 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Transparent Health is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Transparent Health has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Transparent Health 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Transparent Health 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency | 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency are -
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 Transparent Health in the consumer business. Now Transparent Health can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Transparent Health 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, Transparent Health is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Transparent Health 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 Global Business segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Transparent Health can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Transparent Health 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 Transparent Health to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Transparent Health has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Transparent Health to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency case study. Transparent Health can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Transparent Health 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, Transparent Health can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Transparent Health operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Transparent Health can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Developing new processes and practices
– Transparent Health can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Transparent Health 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Transparent Health to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Transparent Health can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Transparent Health 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Transparent Health 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Transparent Health is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Transparent Health 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. Transparent Health can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Transparent Health 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.
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.
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 Transparent Health.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Transparent Health 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Transparent Health can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Transparent Health 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Transparent Health
– 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 Transparent Health.
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.
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. Transparent Health 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Branding BY-HEALTH: The Value of Transparency 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 Transparent Health needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
