Case Study Description of Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine
Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company (BPC) was established in 1974. It had successfully completed a number of mergers and had overcome challenges and development phases that led the company to secure a strong position in its local market, Palestine, as well as introduce a wide range of products in the export market. BPC's continuous success, despite political instability and continuous restrictions on its growth and expansion, led the company's vision to focus beyond the local presence. Despite the growth of BPC and its being financially solid, it was very similar to other Arab businesses, which were reluctant to invest massive amounts of money and take big risks in growing outside their areas. BPC did not wish to risk large amounts of money to grow the business further, and instead chose to expand to new markets or introduce new niche products on a conservative basis. BPC invested in an Algerian packaging company named Petrapharm in 2006 and aimed to meet its vision of growth by entering new markets and introducing new products. BPC wanted the packaging company to later grow to a manufacturing company, and accordingly to an export location. In a business environment that was based on quick decisions due to the fast growing businesses, emerging markets and high competition, the company needed to make faster decisions, invest more money and choose a new path to secure its business development and growth. Competition in pharmaceutical manufacturing and especially among generics was increasing massively, and the faster BPC moved, the more competitive it would be.
Swot Analysis of "Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine" written by Yara Asad, Ilan Alon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bpc Birzeit facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Risk management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bpc Birzeit, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bpc Birzeit 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bpc Birzeit
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 Bpc Birzeit
Strengths Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bpc Birzeit in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bpc Birzeit 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Bpc Birzeit is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bpc Birzeit 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
– Bpc Birzeit is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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.
Training and development
– Bpc Birzeit has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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.
Analytics focus
– Bpc Birzeit 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 Yara Asad, Ilan Alon 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bpc Birzeit 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bpc Birzeit in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bpc Birzeit has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bpc Birzeit 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bpc Birzeit is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Bpc Birzeit 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 Bpc Birzeit in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bpc Birzeit to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bpc Birzeit to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bpc Birzeit 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine HBR case study mentions - Bpc Birzeit 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bpc Birzeit 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bpc Birzeit, firm in the HBR case study Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Bpc Birzeit 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bpc Birzeit 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. Bpc Birzeit 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bpc Birzeit 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bpc Birzeit products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bpc Birzeit 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bpc Birzeit is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bpc Birzeit 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.
Opportunities Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine | 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bpc Birzeit 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bpc Birzeit can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bpc Birzeit 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 Bpc Birzeit to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bpc Birzeit can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bpc Birzeit 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, Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Bpc Birzeit to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Bpc Birzeit in the consumer business. Now Bpc Birzeit can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bpc Birzeit 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bpc Birzeit to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Bpc Birzeit can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bpc Birzeit to increase its market reach. Bpc Birzeit 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bpc Birzeit is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bpc Birzeit 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bpc Birzeit can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bpc Birzeit operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Threats Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bpc Birzeit 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bpc Birzeit 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.
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 Bpc Birzeit in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline 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 Bpc Birzeit 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.
Environmental challenges
– Bpc Birzeit 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. Bpc Birzeit 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.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Bpc Birzeit will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bpc Birzeit 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bpc Birzeit is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Bpc Birzeit needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bpc Birzeit with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bpc Birzeit 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.
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 Bpc Birzeit business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company: Marketing from Palestine 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 Bpc Birzeit needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
