Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A)
The pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) sector processes prescription drug claims on behalf of companies that offer a prescription drug benefit to their employees. This case follows Bob Nease, Chief Scientist at Express Scripts, as he considers methods to promote home delivery of prescription drugs by mail-a process proven to lower prescription fill error rates, increase cost savings, and improve medication adherence.
Authors :: John Beshears, Patrick Rooney, Jenny Sanford
Swot Analysis of "Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A)" written by John Beshears, Patrick Rooney, Jenny Sanford includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Prescription Scripts facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Compensation, Decision making, Personnel policies and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Prescription Scripts, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Prescription Scripts 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Prescription Scripts
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 Prescription Scripts
Strengths Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Prescription Scripts in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Prescription Scripts digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Prescription Scripts 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.
Analytics focus
– Prescription Scripts 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 John Beshears, Patrick Rooney, Jenny Sanford 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.
Learning organization
- Prescription Scripts 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 Prescription Scripts is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Prescription Scripts in the sector have low bargaining power. Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Prescription Scripts to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Prescription Scripts 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Prescription Scripts in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Prescription Scripts has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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
– Prescription Scripts is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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.
Organizational Resilience of Prescription Scripts
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Prescription Scripts does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Prescription Scripts is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Prescription Scripts is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Prescription Scripts 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Prescription Scripts is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John Beshears, Patrick Rooney, Jenny Sanford suggests that, Prescription Scripts 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A), it seems that the employees of Prescription Scripts 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) HBR case study mentions - Prescription Scripts 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Prescription Scripts is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Prescription Scripts 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 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 Prescription Scripts supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Prescription Scripts vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Prescription Scripts 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A), in the dynamic environment Prescription Scripts has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Prescription Scripts has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Prescription Scripts 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 - Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Prescription Scripts 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.
Opportunities Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) | 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Prescription Scripts can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Prescription Scripts 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Prescription Scripts 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 Prescription Scripts to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Prescription Scripts 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Prescription Scripts to increase its market reach. Prescription Scripts 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
– Prescription Scripts can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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.
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 Prescription Scripts 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Prescription Scripts can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Prescription Scripts 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. Prescription Scripts 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Prescription Scripts 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.
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. Prescription Scripts can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Prescription Scripts 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.
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. Prescription Scripts can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Prescription Scripts has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Prescription Scripts 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Prescription Scripts 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.
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. Prescription Scripts can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A), Prescription Scripts 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Prescription Scripts
– 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 Prescription Scripts.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Prescription Scripts is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Prescription Scripts 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Prescription Scripts 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.
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 Prescription Scripts in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Prescription Scripts business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Prescription Scripts with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Prescription Scripts 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. Prescription Scripts can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) 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 Prescription Scripts needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.