SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Brooks Laboratories Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Brooks Laboratories Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Brooks Laboratories Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brooks Laboratories Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Major Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
Strengths of Brooks Laboratories Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brooks Laboratories Ltd are -
Learning organization
- Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Brooks Laboratories Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Major Drugs
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Major Drugs industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Brooks Laboratories Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry in India. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in India. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has one of the best training and development program in Healthcare industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
High brand equity
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brooks Laboratories Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Brooks Laboratories Ltd in the Healthcare sector have low bargaining power. Brooks Laboratories Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Brooks Laboratories Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Major Drugs industry
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Brooks Laboratories Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Major Drugs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Brooks Laboratories Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Major Drugs industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Brooks Laboratories Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Major Drugs industry
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Brooks Laboratories Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Major Drugs industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Brooks Laboratories Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Brooks Laboratories Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Brooks Laboratories Ltd are -
High dependence on Brooks Laboratories Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Brooks Laboratories Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Major Drugs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Brooks Laboratories Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Brooks Laboratories Ltd has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Major Drugs industry over the last five years. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Brooks Laboratories Ltd is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Brooks Laboratories Ltd to provide better information regarding Major Drugs products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Brooks Laboratories Ltd has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Major Drugs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Brooks Laboratories Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Major Drugs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Brooks Laboratories Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Brooks Laboratories Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Brooks Laboratories Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Major Drugs industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Brooks Laboratories Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Brooks Laboratories Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Major Drugs industry, but Brooks Laboratories Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Brooks Laboratories Ltd to focus more on services in the Major Drugs industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Brooks Laboratories Ltd is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Major Drugs industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Brooks Laboratories Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Major Drugs industry. 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Brooks Laboratories Ltd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Brooks Laboratories Ltd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Brooks Laboratories Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Brooks Laboratories Ltd are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Brooks Laboratories Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Brooks Laboratories Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Major Drugs sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Major Drugs industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Brooks Laboratories Ltd in the Major Drugs industry. Now Brooks Laboratories Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Major Drugs industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Major Drugs industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
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. Brooks Laboratories Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Brooks Laboratories Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Brooks Laboratories Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Major Drugs industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Major Drugs industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Brooks Laboratories Ltd to increase its market reach. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Brooks Laboratories Ltd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Brooks Laboratories Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Brooks Laboratories Ltd are -
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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd in the Major Drugs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Major Drugs industry and other sectors.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Brooks Laboratories Ltd
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Brooks Laboratories Ltd.
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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Major Drugs industry regulations.
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. Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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.
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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Major Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Brooks Laboratories Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Major Drugs sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Major Drugs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Brooks Laboratories Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Major Drugs sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Brooks Laboratories Ltd in Major Drugs industry. The Major Drugs 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
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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. Brooks Laboratories Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Major Drugs industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd 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 Brooks Laboratories Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.