Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?
The chairman and CEO of the Genzyme Corporation, one the country's top five biotechnology firms, has received a phone call requesting a meeting with the cofounder and principal of a large hedge fund that now has a 2.6% stake in his company. Before meeting with him, the CEO is aware that he needs a strategy for dealing with this "activist" investor with a track record of forcing out CEOs.
Swot Analysis of "Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?" written by Kenneth Eades, Pedro Matos, Rick Green includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Genzyme 2.6 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Genzyme 2.6, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Genzyme 2.6
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Genzyme 2.6
Strengths Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Genzyme 2.6 in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme 2.6 is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Genzyme 2.6 has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Genzyme 2.6 is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Genzyme 2.6 in the sector have low bargaining power. Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Genzyme 2.6 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Genzyme 2.6 digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Genzyme 2.6 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Genzyme 2.6 is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Genzyme 2.6 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? - 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 recruit top talent
– Genzyme 2.6 is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Genzyme 2.6 is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Genzyme 2.6
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Genzyme 2.6 does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme 2.6 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Genzyme 2.6 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 - Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Genzyme 2.6 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Genzyme 2.6 is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 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 Genzyme 2.6 supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Genzyme 2.6 vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?, in the dynamic environment Genzyme 2.6 has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Genzyme 2.6 has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Genzyme 2.6 products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Genzyme 2.6 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, Kenneth Eades, Pedro Matos, Rick Green suggests that, Genzyme 2.6 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? HBR case study mentions - Genzyme 2.6 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?, it seems that the employees of Genzyme 2.6 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, Genzyme 2.6 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.
Opportunities Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? | 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Genzyme 2.6 can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Genzyme 2.6 operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Genzyme 2.6 can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Genzyme 2.6 in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Genzyme 2.6 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. Genzyme 2.6 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Genzyme 2.6 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Genzyme 2.6 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Genzyme 2.6 can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Genzyme 2.6 is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Genzyme 2.6 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Genzyme 2.6 has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Genzyme 2.6 to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? case study. Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme 2.6 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Genzyme 2.6 can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Genzyme 2.6 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, Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? are -
Increasing wage structure of Genzyme 2.6
– 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 Genzyme 2.6.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Genzyme 2.6 in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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
– Genzyme 2.6 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Genzyme 2.6 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. Genzyme 2.6 needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Genzyme 2.6.
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 Genzyme 2.6 business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide?, Genzyme 2.6 may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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. Genzyme 2.6 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Genzyme 2.6 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Genzyme 2.6 with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme and Relational Investors: Science and Business Collide? 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 Genzyme 2.6 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.