Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy
As an emerging life sciences venture, gaining legitimacy (credibility) with external stakeholders (e.g., investors) is a critical challenge in today's environment. This quest for legitimacy relates to issues that focus on the individual, the environment, and the process. Integrating insights gained from interviews with three CEOs of life sciences companies along with the academic literature, we provide guidance for entrepreneurs regarding the unique challenges facing life sciences ventures. We propose that these ventures are driven by a "quest for legitimacy" and that life sciences entrepreneurs therefore must be aware of the strategic issues which impact legitimacy in the eyes of external stakeholders (e.g., investors).
Swot Analysis of "Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy" written by Donald F. Kuratko, Travis J. Brown includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Legitimacy Sciences facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Legitimacy Sciences, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Legitimacy Sciences 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Legitimacy Sciences
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Legitimacy Sciences
Strengths Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Legitimacy Sciences in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Legitimacy Sciences is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 Donald F. Kuratko, Travis J. Brown 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 Legitimacy Sciences in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Legitimacy Sciences digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Legitimacy Sciences to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Legitimacy Sciences to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Legitimacy Sciences is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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.
Learning organization
- Legitimacy Sciences 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 Legitimacy Sciences is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Legitimacy Sciences has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Legitimacy Sciences 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 Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Legitimacy Sciences in the sector have low bargaining power. Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Legitimacy Sciences to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Legitimacy Sciences is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Donald F. Kuratko, Travis J. Brown suggests that, Legitimacy Sciences 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Legitimacy Sciences has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Legitimacy Sciences is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Legitimacy Sciences, firm in the HBR case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Legitimacy Sciences is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Legitimacy Sciences needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Legitimacy Sciences to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy HBR case study mentions - Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Opportunities Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy | 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Legitimacy Sciences can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Legitimacy Sciences to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Legitimacy Sciences in the consumer business. Now Legitimacy Sciences can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Legitimacy Sciences in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Legitimacy Sciences 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Legitimacy Sciences 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 Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Legitimacy Sciences to increase its market reach. Legitimacy Sciences 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Legitimacy Sciences 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. Legitimacy Sciences 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.
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. Legitimacy Sciences can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Legitimacy Sciences is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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, Legitimacy Sciences 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, Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Legitimacy Sciences 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy .
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 Legitimacy Sciences.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 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. Legitimacy Sciences needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Legitimacy Sciences 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
– Legitimacy Sciences 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
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 Legitimacy Sciences business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy, Legitimacy Sciences may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Legitimacy Sciences 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 Legitimacy Sciences in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Legitimacy Sciences 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. Legitimacy Sciences can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Legitimacy Sciences is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Emerging Life Sciences Ventures: The Quest for Legitimacy 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 Legitimacy Sciences needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
