Fortress Biotech Pref A (FBIOP) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Fortress Biotech Pref A (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Fortress Biotech Pref A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fortress Biotech Pref A
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Fortress Biotech Pref A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fortress Biotech Pref A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Fortress Biotech Pref A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fortress Biotech Pref A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fortress Biotech Pref A
Strengths of Fortress Biotech Pref A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fortress Biotech Pref A are -
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fortress Biotech Pref A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 industry
– Fortress Biotech Pref A is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fortress Biotech Pref A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Fortress Biotech Pref A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fortress Biotech Pref A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Fortress Biotech Pref A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fortress Biotech Pref A in the sector have low bargaining power. Fortress Biotech Pref A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fortress Biotech Pref A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
High brand equity
– Fortress Biotech Pref A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fortress Biotech Pref A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 of United States 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Fortress Biotech Pref A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fortress Biotech Pref A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fortress Biotech Pref A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Fortress Biotech Pref A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Fortress Biotech Pref A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fortress Biotech Pref A are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Fortress Biotech Pref A needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Fortress Biotech Pref A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fortress Biotech Pref A is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fortress Biotech Pref A products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fortress Biotech Pref A needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Fortress Biotech Pref A, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fortress Biotech Pref A has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Fortress Biotech Pref A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Fortress Biotech Pref A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fortress Biotech Pref A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Fortress Biotech Pref A ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Fortress Biotech Pref A still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Fortress Biotech Pref A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Fortress Biotech Pref A is just above the 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fortress Biotech Pref A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Fortress Biotech Pref A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fortress Biotech Pref A to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Fortress Biotech Pref A has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Fortress Biotech Pref A lucrative customers.
Fortress Biotech Pref A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Fortress Biotech Pref A are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fortress Biotech Pref A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fortress Biotech Pref A can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fortress Biotech Pref A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Fortress Biotech Pref A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fortress Biotech Pref A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Fortress Biotech Pref A 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. Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fortress Biotech Pref A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fortress Biotech Pref A can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Fortress Biotech Pref A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fortress Biotech Pref A to increase its market reach. Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fortress Biotech Pref A can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Fortress Biotech Pref A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Fortress Biotech Pref A are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fortress Biotech Pref A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fortress Biotech Pref A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 industry regulations.
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 Fortress Biotech Pref A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Fortress Biotech Pref A in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Fortress Biotech Pref A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fortress Biotech Pref A 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fortress Biotech Pref A in industry. The 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.
Increasing wage structure of Fortress Biotech Pref A
– 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 industry and other sectors.
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 Fortress Biotech Pref A.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fortress Biotech Pref A can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fortress Biotech Pref A is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fortress Biotech Pref A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A 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 Fortress Biotech Pref A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.