Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND
Genzyme, a global biotechnology company, launches a program to develop therapies for neglected diseases, (e.g. malaria, TB), giving away the intellectual property. This case focuses on the decision of which diseases, which partnerships, and which markets should management decide to fund. But the bigger issue is how this program developed under the umbrella role Genzyme's corporate social responsibility fits into its global competitive strategy.
Authors :: Christopher A. Bartlett, Tarun Khanna, Prithwiraj Choudhury
Swot Analysis of "Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND" written by Christopher A. Bartlett, Tarun Khanna, Prithwiraj Choudhury includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Genzyme's Diseases facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Government, Joint ventures, Social responsibility and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Genzyme's Diseases, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Genzyme's Diseases operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Genzyme's Diseases
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 Genzyme's Diseases
Strengths Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Genzyme's Diseases in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Genzyme's Diseases digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Genzyme's Diseases 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.
High brand equity
– Genzyme's Diseases has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Genzyme's Diseases to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Genzyme's Diseases in the sector have low bargaining power. Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Genzyme's Diseases to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Genzyme's Diseases has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Genzyme's Diseases is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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)
– Genzyme's Diseases has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Genzyme's Diseases has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Genzyme's Diseases in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Analytics focus
– Genzyme's Diseases 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 Christopher A. Bartlett, Tarun Khanna, Prithwiraj Choudhury 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.
Weaknesses Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Genzyme's Diseases is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Genzyme's Diseases needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Genzyme's Diseases to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND, it seems that the employees of Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND, is just above the industry average. Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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 Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Genzyme's Diseases is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND, in the dynamic environment Genzyme's Diseases has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Genzyme's Diseases has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Genzyme's Diseases has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher A. Bartlett, Tarun Khanna, Prithwiraj Choudhury suggests that, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Opportunities Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Genzyme's Diseases can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Genzyme's Diseases can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Genzyme's Diseases operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Genzyme's Diseases can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Genzyme's Diseases 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 Genzyme's Diseases to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Genzyme's Diseases is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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.
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 Genzyme's Diseases in the consumer business. Now Genzyme's Diseases can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Genzyme's Diseases can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Genzyme's Diseases 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 Global Business segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Genzyme's Diseases can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Genzyme's Diseases 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 Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Genzyme's Diseases to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Genzyme's Diseases has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Genzyme's Diseases business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Genzyme's Diseases 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Genzyme's Diseases 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.
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 Genzyme's Diseases in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Genzyme's Diseases
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Genzyme's Diseases.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Genzyme's Diseases can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Genzyme's Diseases 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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Genzyme's Diseases.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Genzyme's Diseases with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND, Genzyme's Diseases 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 .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Genzyme's Diseases needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Genzyme's CSR Dilemma: How to Play its HAND is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Genzyme's Diseases needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.