Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company
As a middle manager at a biotechnology company, Sandra Brown harnessed digital tools and social media to engage others and build campaigns for change in the company. This case follows her career at the company, and describes the challenges she faced as a change agent, working to promote gender equality within the company, and a new drug developed to fight cancer externally.
Swot Analysis of "Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jonathan Cohen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sandra Brown facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Corporate governance, Motivating people, Operations management, Product development, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption,
geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sandra Brown, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sandra Brown
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sandra Brown
Strengths Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sandra Brown in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Sandra Brown is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sandra Brown has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sandra Brown 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.
Learning organization
- Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sandra Brown to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sandra Brown to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sandra Brown is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Sandra Brown has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sandra Brown to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Sandra Brown 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jonathan Cohen 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown 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.
Weaknesses Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, is just above the industry average. Sandra Brown 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, Sandra Brown has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sandra Brown has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sandra Brown has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sandra Brown 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 - Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, in the dynamic environment Sandra Brown has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sandra Brown vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sandra Brown is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sandra Brown products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sandra Brown needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company HBR case study mentions - Sandra Brown 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.
Opportunities Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company | 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sandra Brown to increase its market reach. Sandra Brown 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.
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 Sandra Brown 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sandra Brown to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sandra Brown 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. Sandra Brown can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sandra Brown 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sandra Brown is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sandra Brown 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sandra Brown can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sandra Brown operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Sandra Brown 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sandra Brown can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Sandra Brown can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sandra Brown can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company are -
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 Sandra Brown.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sandra Brown 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sandra Brown 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.
Increasing wage structure of Sandra Brown
– 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 Sandra Brown.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sandra Brown is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Sandra Brown needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sandra Brown in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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. Sandra Brown 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, Sandra Brown may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Regulatory challenges
– Sandra Brown 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company .
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 Sandra Brown business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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