AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients
David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca UK Limited (AZN), was passionate about bringing new medicines to patients. But the industry was transforming to one that featured less patent protection, more competition from generic drugs, stiffer government regulations, and decreased productivity in R&D. The strategy? Build a pipeline with new prescription drugs that were unique enough to provide a differentiated benefit to patients, grow the business globally, streamline the organization and increase efficiency, and build a culture of courage, creativity, and collaboration. Would the firm be able to provide a sustainable and consistent pipeline of new products-at lower cost, likely with fewer people? How might the firm average two new products to market each year? What areas of R&D should the company invest in, and what would the R&D transformation look like?
Swot Analysis of "AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients" written by Scott Snell, Gerry Yemen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Astrazeneca Patients facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Astrazeneca Patients, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Astrazeneca Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Astrazeneca Patients
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 Astrazeneca Patients
Strengths AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Astrazeneca Patients in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Astrazeneca Patients digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Organizational Resilience of Astrazeneca Patients
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Astrazeneca Patients does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Astrazeneca Patients is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Astrazeneca Patients to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Astrazeneca Patients to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Astrazeneca Patients 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 Astrazeneca Patients in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Astrazeneca Patients 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 Scott Snell, Gerry Yemen 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Astrazeneca Patients is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Astrazeneca Patients is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Astrazeneca Patients has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Astrazeneca Patients in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Astrazeneca Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients, in the dynamic environment Astrazeneca Patients has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Astrazeneca Patients has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients, it seems that the employees of Astrazeneca Patients 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Astrazeneca Patients is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 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 Astrazeneca Patients supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Astrazeneca Patients vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Astrazeneca Patients products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Astrazeneca Patients needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Astrazeneca Patients is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Astrazeneca Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients | 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients are -
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. Astrazeneca Patients can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Astrazeneca Patients can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Astrazeneca Patients in the consumer business. Now Astrazeneca Patients can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Astrazeneca Patients can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Astrazeneca Patients operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Astrazeneca Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Astrazeneca Patients to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Astrazeneca Patients 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, Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Astrazeneca Patients has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Astrazeneca Patients to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients case study. Astrazeneca Patients can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Astrazeneca Patients can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Astrazeneca Patients to increase its market reach. Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Threats AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients are -
Environmental challenges
– Astrazeneca Patients 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. Astrazeneca Patients can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Astrazeneca Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients, Astrazeneca Patients 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Astrazeneca Patients 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Astrazeneca Patients with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Astrazeneca Patients is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Astrazeneca Patients 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 Astrazeneca Patients in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Astrazeneca Patients
– 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 Astrazeneca Patients.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Astrazeneca Patients 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.
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 Astrazeneca Patients.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 AstraZeneca: Transforming How New Medicines Flow to Patients 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 Astrazeneca Patients needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.