Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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 (Sequel)
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 (Sequel)" written by Susan Rosegrant 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel)
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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) | 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 (Sequel) Harvard Business Review case study are -
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 (Sequel) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vaccines Tiered is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Vaccines Tiered digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Vaccines Tiered 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.
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 (Sequel) 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 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.
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.
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.
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 (Sequel) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vaccines Tiered in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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 (Sequel) 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.
Weaknesses Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) | 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 (Sequel) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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.
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 (Sequel) 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel), it seems that the employees of Vaccines Tiered 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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.
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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 Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vaccines Tiered is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel), 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.
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.
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.
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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel), 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.
Opportunities Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) | 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 (Sequel) are -
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 (Sequel), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vaccines Tiered 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Vaccines Tiered can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 (Sequel) 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.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vaccines Tiered to increase its market reach. Vaccines Tiered 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (Sequel) 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.
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.
Threats Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) are -
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 Vaccines Tiered.
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 (Sequel), 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.
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 (Sequel) .
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 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Vaccines Tiered with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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 (Sequel) 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.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Vaccines for the Developing World: The Challenge to Justify Tiered Pricing (Sequel)
