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FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE


The case describes the financing of the Genentech acquisition by Roche. The case explores the innovative way of financing by Roche at the beginning of 2009, just months after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. With equity markets in free fall, and with debt markets "shut off", the CFO of Roche manages to finance an acquisition costing more than USD 40 billion, and scores three hits in a matter of weeks: a) the largest private issue of bonds in the US (USD 16.6 billion); b) the largest private issue of bonds in Continental Europe (Euro 11.25 billion); c) the largest private issue of bonds in UK (Sterling1.25 billion). The case presents the facts, the issues at stake, and the incredibly bold and innovative financiang route chosen by the Roche CFO. Learning objectives: The main teaching point of this case is its "anti-crisis" message. At one of the worst possible moments of the 2008 financial crisis, an enlightened CFO (with a small team of talented people) decides that he cannot be affected by the external environment, and decides to go ahead to finance a value creating investment opportunity. The main learnings from this case are: 1) making class participants realize that there are alternative ways to finance good investment opportunities; 2) that although capital structure is important, the creating value mechanism was the project rather than financing; 3) that the financing, however, was the enabler of the value creation potential of the project.

Authors :: Stewart Hamilton, Anna Eckardt Salvatore

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Financial management, Leadership, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE" written by Stewart Hamilton, Anna Eckardt Salvatore includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Roche Bonds facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE casestudy better are - – 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, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roche Bonds, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roche Bonds 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roche Bonds
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Roche Bonds




Strengths FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Roche Bonds in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE Harvard Business Review case study are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– Roche Bonds 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Roche Bonds is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 Leadership & Managing People field

– Roche Bonds 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 Roche Bonds in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Roche Bonds digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Roche Bonds 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Roche Bonds has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roche Bonds 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 Roche Bonds in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Roche Bonds 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Roche Bonds in the sector have low bargaining power. FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Roche Bonds to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Roche Bonds 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Roche Bonds is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Diverse revenue streams

– Roche Bonds is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Roche Bonds to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Roche Bonds to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.



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Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE are -

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Roche Bonds 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, Stewart Hamilton, Anna Eckardt Salvatore suggests that, Roche Bonds 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Roche Bonds, firm in the HBR case study FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Roche Bonds 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. Roche Bonds 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE HBR case study mentions - Roche Bonds 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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 to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Roche Bonds is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Roche Bonds has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Lack of clear differentiation of Roche Bonds products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Roche Bonds needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE, in the dynamic environment Roche Bonds has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Roche Bonds has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Need for greater diversity

– Roche Bonds 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE | 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Roche Bonds 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 Roche Bonds to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Roche Bonds is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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, Roche Bonds 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Roche Bonds can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Roche Bonds can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Roche Bonds can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Roche Bonds 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. Roche Bonds 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

– Roche Bonds 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Roche Bonds 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Roche Bonds to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Roche Bonds 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Roche Bonds can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Roche Bonds operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Roche Bonds can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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 Roche Bonds in the consumer business. Now Roche Bonds can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.




Threats FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE are -

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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Roche Bonds is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Roche Bonds business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roche Bonds in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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 Roche Bonds.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Roche Bonds 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.

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. Roche Bonds 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.

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 Roche Bonds in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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 Roche Bonds 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 Roche Bonds 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.

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. Roche Bonds needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Roche Bonds 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 FINANCIAL PIONEERING: THE GENENTECH ACQUISITION BY ROCHE 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 Roche Bonds needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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