Case Study Description of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations
This case captures the roller-coaster ride of India's first multinational pharmaceutical company that after winning several accolades lost its way only to eventually plead guilty for the unethical practices it had resorted to in fulfilling its growth aspirations. Tracing the strategic choices of the company since its inception until it ceased to exist, the case covers the reign of several different CEOs. It enables examination of the drivers of a firm's strategic choices at the point of decision making, and serves to illustrate the dynamic aspects of leadership. Among others, it highlights the role of aspirations as a driver of firm's choices and the difficult tradeoffs that are inherent to aspiration-driven strategies. Demonstrating the negative repercussions of an aspiration-led strategy as well as the challenges a firm's leadership faces as they seek to re-define the aspirations, it serves as an intriguing story of the dark side of aspirations. The teaching note provides a set of discussion questions and pre-reads that can be assigned to the class, and suggests a detailed teaching plan that is divided into five pastures.
Swot Analysis of "Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations" written by J Ramachandran, Snigdha Manukonda, Kiran Awate includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Aspirations Aspiration facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Aspirations Aspiration, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Aspirations Aspiration 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Aspirations Aspiration
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Aspirations Aspiration
Strengths Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Aspirations Aspiration in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Aspirations Aspiration has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Aspirations Aspiration 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Aspirations Aspiration is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Aspirations Aspiration has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Aspirations Aspiration is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Aspirations Aspiration in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Aspirations Aspiration 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 Aspirations Aspiration in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Aspirations Aspiration is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Aspirations Aspiration 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Aspirations Aspiration in the sector have low bargaining power. Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Aspirations Aspiration to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Aspirations Aspiration to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Aspirations Aspiration to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations HBR case study mentions - Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Aspirations Aspiration needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Aspirations Aspiration has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Aspirations Aspiration even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Aspirations Aspiration 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, J Ramachandran, Snigdha Manukonda, Kiran Awate suggests that, Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Aspirations Aspiration, firm in the HBR case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Aspirations Aspiration 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Aspirations Aspiration is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Aspirations Aspiration supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Aspirations Aspiration vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations | 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations are -
Manufacturing automation
– Aspirations Aspiration can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Aspirations Aspiration can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Aspirations Aspiration can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Aspirations Aspiration in the consumer business. Now Aspirations Aspiration can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Aspirations Aspiration is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Aspirations Aspiration 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, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Aspirations Aspiration in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Aspirations Aspiration 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 Aspirations Aspiration to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Aspirations Aspiration has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Aspirations Aspiration to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations case study. Aspirations Aspiration can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Aspirations Aspiration has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Aspirations Aspiration to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Aspirations Aspiration can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Aspirations Aspiration 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Aspirations Aspiration 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Aspirations Aspiration in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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
– Aspirations Aspiration 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.
Environmental challenges
– Aspirations Aspiration 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. Aspirations Aspiration can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Aspirations Aspiration 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.
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 Aspirations Aspiration 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. Aspirations Aspiration needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations, Aspirations Aspiration may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
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 Aspirations Aspiration in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Aspirations Aspiration has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Aspirations Aspiration needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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 Aspirations Aspiration.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Changing Aspirations 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 Aspirations Aspiration needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
