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 - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, 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 -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Malaria Rbm in the sector have low bargaining power. Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Malaria Rbm to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative 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.
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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Malaria Rbm has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Malaria Rbm 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 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.
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.
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.
Learning organization
- Malaria Rbm 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 Malaria Rbm is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Malaria Rbm digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Malaria Rbm 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.
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 -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Malaria Rbm 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, in the dynamic environment Malaria Rbm has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Malaria Rbm has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Malaria Rbm 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 - Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Malaria Rbm 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.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, it seems that the employees of Malaria Rbm 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.
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.
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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, is just above the industry average. Malaria Rbm 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.
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 -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Malaria Rbm 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. Malaria Rbm can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Malaria Rbm 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 Malaria Rbm to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Malaria Rbm to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
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 Malaria Rbm 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.
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 Malaria Rbm in the consumer business. Now Malaria Rbm can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
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 -
Environmental challenges
– Malaria Rbm 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. Malaria Rbm can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative, Malaria Rbm 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Malaria Rbm 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 Roll Back Malaria and BCG: the Change Initiative .
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.
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.
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 Malaria Rbm business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
