Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death"
The case describes the challenges faced by Immunovaccine (IMV), a small biotechnology company founded in Halifax, Canada. The company has seen early success in the effectiveness of its technology in animal health and is looking for ways to exploit the potential of its technology more broadly, particularly in human health. The company's challenges are presented in the context of the evolving relationship between the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The case describes the various issues the company faces around 2008, shortly after the new president and CEO has taken over. It then provides details on strategy formulation and execution under the new CEO.
Swot Analysis of "Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death"" written by Ella Korets-Smith, Suhaib Riaz includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Immunovaccine Imv facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death"
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Immunovaccine Imv, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Immunovaccine Imv 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Immunovaccine Imv
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 Immunovaccine Imv
Strengths Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Immunovaccine Imv in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Immunovaccine Imv 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 Ella Korets-Smith, Suhaib Riaz 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.
Training and development
– Immunovaccine Imv has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Immunovaccine Imv is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Immunovaccine Imv 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Immunovaccine Imv
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Immunovaccine Imv does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Immunovaccine Imv to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Immunovaccine Imv to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Immunovaccine Imv 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Immunovaccine Imv is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Immunovaccine Imv digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Immunovaccine Imv is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Immunovaccine Imv in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death", in the dynamic environment Immunovaccine Imv has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Immunovaccine Imv 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, Immunovaccine Imv is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Immunovaccine Imv is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" HBR case study mentions - Immunovaccine Imv 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Immunovaccine Imv 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ella Korets-Smith, Suhaib Riaz suggests that, Immunovaccine Imv 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine Imv 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death", 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Immunovaccine Imv has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Immunovaccine Imv even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Immunovaccine Imv, firm in the HBR case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" | 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Immunovaccine Imv 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 Immunovaccine Imv to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Immunovaccine Imv 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.
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 Immunovaccine Imv in the consumer business. Now Immunovaccine Imv can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Immunovaccine Imv 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. Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Immunovaccine Imv is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Immunovaccine Imv 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Immunovaccine Imv to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Immunovaccine Imv can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Immunovaccine Imv can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Immunovaccine Imv in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Immunovaccine Imv has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Immunovaccine Imv needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Immunovaccine Imv in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Immunovaccine Imv is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Immunovaccine Imv 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Immunovaccine Imv with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Immunovaccine Imv business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Immunovaccine Imv 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. Immunovaccine Imv can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Immunovaccine Imv 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Immunovaccine Imv
– 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 Immunovaccine Imv.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine (IMV): Preparing to Cross the "Valley of Death" 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 Immunovaccine Imv needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
