Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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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 - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, 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 -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vaccines Tiered has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vaccines Tiered 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.
Training and development
– Vaccines Tiered has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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.
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.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vaccines Tiered 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vaccines Tiered 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.
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.
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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vaccines Tiered is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Vaccines Tiered 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, is just above the industry average. Vaccines Tiered 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, in the dynamic environment Vaccines Tiered has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Vaccines Tiered has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing 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 Vaccines Tiered 's lucrative customers.
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.
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 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 Vaccines Tiered supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Vaccines Tiered vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
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 -
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vaccines Tiered has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vaccines Tiered to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing case study. Vaccines Tiered can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vaccines Tiered 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Vaccines Tiered can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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 Vaccines Tiered in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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 .
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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vaccines Tiered 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Vaccines Tiered can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vaccines Tiered 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.
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.
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.