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 - – technology disruption, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, 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 -
Training and development
– Sandra Brown has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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.
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.
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.
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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sandra Brown digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sandra Brown has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sandra Brown 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sandra Brown in the sector have low bargaining power. Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sandra Brown to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sandra Brown 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to 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 -
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sandra Brown, firm in the HBR case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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 Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sandra Brown is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Sandra Brown 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sandra Brown needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sandra Brown 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. Sandra Brown 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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sandra Brown 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, Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sandra Brown can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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
– 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sandra Brown can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sandra Brown has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sandra Brown to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company case study. Sandra Brown can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sandra Brown in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sandra Brown 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Sandra Brown can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company 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.
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 -
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.
Environmental challenges
– Sandra Brown 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. Sandra Brown can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 .
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sandra Brown with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sandra Brown 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sandra Brown in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
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.
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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