×




Ascendis Health Ltd (ASCJ) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Ascendis Health Ltd (South Africa)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ascendis Health Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, etc



12 Hrs

$59.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now

24 Hrs

$49.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now

48 Hrs

$39.99
per Page
  • 100% Plagiarism Free
  • On Time Delivery | 27x7
  • PayPal Secure
  • 300 Words / Page
  • Buy Now







Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ascendis Health Ltd


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ascendis Health Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ascendis Health Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ascendis Health Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ascendis Health Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Africa
4. Making a Major Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ascendis Health Ltd




Strengths of Ascendis Health Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Ascendis Health Ltd are -

Ability to lead change in Major Drugs

– Ascendis Health Ltd is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry in South Africa. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Major Drugs industry in South Africa but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Ascendis Health Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Ascendis Health Ltd in the Healthcare sector have low bargaining power. Ascendis Health Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ascendis Health Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Digital Transformation in Major Drugs industry

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

Diverse revenue streams

– Ascendis Health Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Major Drugs industry. This has provided Ascendis Health Ltd a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Training and development

– Ascendis Health 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Ascendis Health Ltd in Major Drugs industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Ascendis Health Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ascendis Health 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Ascendis Health Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Ascendis Health Ltd staying ahead in the Major Drugs industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High brand equity

– Ascendis Health Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ascendis Health Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Innovation driven organization

– Ascendis Health Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Major Drugs sector.

Analytics focus

– Ascendis Health Ltd 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 Major Drugs industry. The technology infrastructure of South Africa is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.






Weaknesses of Ascendis Health Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Ascendis Health Ltd are -

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Ascendis Health Ltd is just above the Major Drugs industry average. It 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Ascendis Health 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Ascendis Health 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. Ascendis Health Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Lack of clear differentiation of Ascendis Health Ltd products

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

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Ascendis Health Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Ascendis Health Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ascendis Health Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of South Africa, Ascendis Health Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Ascendis Health Ltd has high operating costs in the Major Drugs industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Ascendis Health Ltd lucrative customers.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Ascendis Health Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Major Drugs industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ascendis Health Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ascendis Health Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Major Drugs industry, Ascendis Health Ltd 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.

Employees’ less understanding of Ascendis Health Ltd strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Ascendis Health Ltd don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.




Ascendis Health Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Ascendis Health Ltd are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ascendis Health Ltd to increase its market reach. Ascendis Health 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Ascendis Health Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Major Drugs sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Ascendis Health Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ascendis Health Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ascendis Health Ltd 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Ascendis Health Ltd 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Ascendis Health Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Major Drugs 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.

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 Ascendis Health Ltd in the Major Drugs industry. Now Ascendis Health Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ascendis Health Ltd 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ascendis Health Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ascendis Health 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Ascendis Health 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ascendis Health Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ascendis Health Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Major Drugs sector.




Threats Ascendis Health Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Ascendis Health Ltd are -

Environmental challenges

– Ascendis Health 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. Ascendis Health Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Major Drugs industry.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Ascendis Health Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Major Drugs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health 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.

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 Ascendis Health Ltd.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Major Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Ascendis Health 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Ascendis Health Ltd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Major Drugs sector.

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 Ascendis Health Ltd in the Major Drugs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Ascendis Health Ltd 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 Major Drugs industry.

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. Ascendis Health 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.

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 Ascendis Health Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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 Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health Ltd.

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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ascendis Health Ltd Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health 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 Ascendis Health Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



--- ---

EMC Insurance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Financial , Insurance (Prop. & Casualty)


Tesec SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Semiconductors


Borqs Tech SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Software & Programming


Transmetro SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Services , Hotels & Motels


Grieg Seafood SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Consumer/Non-Cyclical , Food Processing


And Factory SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Software & Programming


NTT Data Corp. SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Computer Networks


Guangdong Biolight Meditech SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Healthcare , Medical Equipment & Supplies


Ehave SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix

Technology , Software & Programming