Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing
This microeconomics case examines the pricing issues related to the sale of inexpensive vaccines for use in developing countries. The case describe the historic success of the United Nations' so-called "tiered pricing" policy. This policy had allowed the World Health Organization to purchase large volumes of vaccines at the marginal price of vaccine production-often just a few cents per dose-while developed nations paid the full average cost-often many times more. Changing political circumstances and the cost structure of new vaccines threaten the decades-old arrangement, however. HKS Case Number 1450.0
Swot Analysis of "Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing" written by Susan Rosegrant, Jose Gomez-Ibanez includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vaccines Tiered facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economics, Entrepreneurial finance, Health, Policy, Pricing, Social responsibility and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vaccines Tiered, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vaccines Tiered
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 Vaccines Tiered
Strengths Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vaccines Tiered in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines Tiered in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Vaccines Tiered is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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.
Learning organization
- Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines Tiered is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Susan Rosegrant, Jose Gomez-Ibanez 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 brand equity
– Vaccines Tiered has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vaccines Tiered to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vaccines Tiered to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vaccines Tiered to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vaccines Tiered in the sector have low bargaining power. Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vaccines Tiered to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vaccines Tiered 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Vaccines Tiered
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vaccines Tiered does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Vaccines Tiered is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Vaccines Tiered 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Vaccines Tiered has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vaccines Tiered is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vaccines Tiered 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines Tiered has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Susan Rosegrant, Jose Gomez-Ibanez suggests that, Vaccines Tiered 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Vaccines Tiered 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 - Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Vaccines Tiered, firm in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Vaccines Tiered 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Vaccines Tiered is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Vaccines Tiered needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Vaccines Tiered to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing HBR case study mentions - Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing | 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines Tiered 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vaccines Tiered can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vaccines Tiered operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vaccines Tiered 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, Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Vaccines Tiered in the consumer business. Now Vaccines Tiered can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Vaccines Tiered can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Vaccines Tiered can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines Tiered to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vaccines Tiered is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines Tiered 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.
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. Vaccines Tiered 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. Vaccines Tiered can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Loyalty marketing
– Vaccines Tiered 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.
Threats Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing are -
Regulatory challenges
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
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.
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. Vaccines Tiered 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.
Increasing wage structure of Vaccines Tiered
– 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 Vaccines Tiered.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vaccines Tiered has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vaccines Tiered needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Vaccines Tiered 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing .
Environmental challenges
– Vaccines Tiered 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. Vaccines Tiered can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vaccines Tiered 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, Vaccines Tiered 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vaccines Tiered is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Vaccines Tiered business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Vaccines Tiered needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines Tiered needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
