The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding
The founder of the Access to Medicine Foundation, based in the Netherlands, had a goal to research and publish a biannual, global survey of pharmaceutical companies and their rankings, in terms of their effects in providing needed medicines to people in developing countries. When the first two iterations of the Access to Medicine Index (ATMI) were published in 2008 and 2010 (see case A), the most prominent challenges were engaging stakeholders-government, pharmaceutical firms, nonprofit organizations, investors, and others-and securing funding to support ongoing research and analyses. In 2016, the founder was preparing for the ATMI's fifth iteration (see case B, W17013), and he had a three-point focus: to improve engagement with pharmaceutical companies in an effort to increase the effect of the ATMI on companies' practices; to incorporate the views of patients into the ATMI; and to engage with governments and regulators in the developing countries, where citizens were in need of access to medicines.
Authors :: Afshin Mehrpouya, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Ken Mark
Swot Analysis of "The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding" written by Afshin Mehrpouya, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Atmi Medicine facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Atmi Medicine, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Atmi Medicine 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Atmi Medicine
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 Atmi Medicine
Strengths The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Atmi Medicine in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Atmi Medicine is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Atmi Medicine 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Atmi Medicine in the sector have low bargaining power. The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Atmi Medicine to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Atmi Medicine 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Atmi Medicine is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Atmi Medicine 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.
Analytics focus
– Atmi Medicine 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 Afshin Mehrpouya, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Ken Mark 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Atmi Medicine is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Atmi Medicine has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Atmi Medicine 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
– Atmi Medicine is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Atmi Medicine to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Atmi Medicine to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Atmi Medicine 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding - 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding are -
Need for greater diversity
– Atmi Medicine 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding, 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding HBR case study mentions - Atmi Medicine takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Atmi Medicine 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. Atmi Medicine 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Atmi Medicine 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 - The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Atmi Medicine 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Atmi Medicine, firm in the HBR case study The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 Atmi Medicine 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Afshin Mehrpouya, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Ken Mark suggests that, Atmi Medicine 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Atmi Medicine 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Atmi Medicine 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.
Opportunities The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding | 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Atmi Medicine can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Atmi Medicine 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Atmi Medicine 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Atmi Medicine can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Atmi Medicine is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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.
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. Atmi Medicine 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. Atmi Medicine 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Atmi Medicine to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Manufacturing automation
– Atmi Medicine 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Atmi Medicine 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Atmi Medicine 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Atmi Medicine 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 Atmi Medicine to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Atmi Medicine has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Atmi Medicine to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding case study. Atmi Medicine can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Atmi Medicine can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Atmi Medicine 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.
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 Atmi Medicine in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Atmi Medicine business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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. Atmi Medicine needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Atmi Medicine 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding, Atmi Medicine may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Atmi Medicine is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Atmi Medicine 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Atmi Medicine 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.
Environmental challenges
– Atmi Medicine 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. Atmi Medicine can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Atmi Medicine.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 The Access to Medicine Index (A): Engaging Stakeholders and Attracting Funding 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 Atmi Medicine needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
