Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative
Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership dedicated to fighting malaria has not met its founders' expectations of effectively combatting malaria. In 2005, after several internal evaluations, RBM leadership has decided to engage the Boston Consulting Group to work on a Change Initiative that when completed will enable RBM to address the eradication of malaria both more effectively and through larger scale efforts. However, the Initiative has become derailed after BCG's first major presentation to the RBM board. Will this end the Change Initiative prematurely?
Authors :: Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon, Catherine Ross
Swot Analysis of "Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative" written by Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon, Catherine Ross includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Malaria Rbm facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Health, Influence, International business, Joint ventures, Leadership, Leading teams, Negotiations and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Malaria Rbm, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Malaria Rbm
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 Malaria Rbm
Strengths Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Malaria Rbm in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Malaria Rbm is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Malaria Rbm to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Malaria Rbm to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Malaria Rbm is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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
– Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Malaria Rbm has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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
– Malaria Rbm is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Malaria Rbm 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.
Analytics focus
– Malaria Rbm 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 Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon, Catherine Ross 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Malaria Rbm is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Malaria Rbm
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Malaria Rbm does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Malaria Rbm 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 Malaria Rbm in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Malaria Rbm in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, 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 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 Malaria Rbm supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Malaria Rbm vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Malaria Rbm 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Malaria Rbm is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Malaria Rbm 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Malaria Rbm is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Malaria Rbm needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Malaria Rbm to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Malaria Rbm 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Malaria Rbm is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Malaria Rbm products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Malaria Rbm needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon, Catherine Ross suggests that, Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative | 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Malaria Rbm 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Malaria Rbm to increase its market reach. Malaria Rbm 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Malaria Rbm can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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.
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. Malaria Rbm 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. Malaria Rbm 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 Malaria Rbm 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.
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. Malaria Rbm can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Malaria Rbm 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.
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. Malaria Rbm can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Malaria Rbm 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, Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Malaria Rbm can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Malaria Rbm can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Malaria Rbm 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative are -
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. Malaria Rbm 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Malaria Rbm is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Malaria Rbm needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Malaria Rbm needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Global Business industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Malaria Rbm 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Malaria Rbm 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Malaria Rbm 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.
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 Malaria Rbm.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Malaria Rbm with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Malaria Rbm 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 Malaria Rbm 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.
Increasing wage structure of Malaria Rbm
– 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 Malaria Rbm.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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 Malaria Rbm needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.