Swot Analysis of "Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months" written by Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fritz Hans facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Mergers & acquisitions and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fritz Hans, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fritz Hans 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fritz Hans
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 Fritz Hans
Strengths Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fritz Hans in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fritz Hans 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 Fritz Hans in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Fritz Hans 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 Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fritz Hans in the sector have low bargaining power. Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fritz Hans to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fritz Hans 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fritz Hans digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fritz Hans 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fritz Hans in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fritz Hans has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fritz Hans 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fritz Hans
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fritz Hans does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Fritz Hans 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 Fritz Hans is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Fritz Hans has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fritz Hans 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Fritz Hans 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop suggests that, Fritz Hans 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fritz Hans is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months HBR case study mentions - Fritz Hans takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Fritz Hans has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fritz Hans 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fritz Hans 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 - Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fritz Hans products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fritz Hans needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fritz Hans 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months, is just above the industry average. Fritz Hans needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months | 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months are -
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. Fritz Hans 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. Fritz Hans 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fritz Hans in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fritz Hans 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fritz Hans 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, Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fritz Hans 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fritz Hans 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.
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 Fritz Hans in the consumer business. Now Fritz Hans can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Fritz Hans can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fritz Hans is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fritz Hans to increase its market reach. Fritz Hans 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.
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. Fritz Hans can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fritz Hans can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fritz Hans operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fritz Hans 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fritz Hans to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fritz Hans 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.
Environmental challenges
– Fritz Hans 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. Fritz Hans can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fritz Hans is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fritz Hans 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fritz Hans 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.
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. Fritz Hans 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 Fritz Hans 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.
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 Fritz Hans 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 Fritz Hans 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fritz Hans can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Fritz Hans needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Fritz Hans needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Hans Fritz at Novartis Thailand (B): The First Six Months 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 Fritz Hans needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.