SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Homology Medicines (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Homology Medicines is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Homology Medicines
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Homology Medicines can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Homology Medicines, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Homology Medicines
2. Improving business portfolio management of Homology Medicines
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Retail (Drugs) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Homology Medicines
Strengths of Homology Medicines | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Homology Medicines are -
High brand equity
– Homology Medicines has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Homology Medicines to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Homology Medicines is one of the leading players in the Retail (Drugs) industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Homology Medicines 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 Retail (Drugs) 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Homology Medicines is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Drugs) industry. This has provided Homology Medicines 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Homology Medicines is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Drugs) sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Homology Medicines 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Homology Medicines comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Drugs) 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Drugs) industry
– Homology Medicines has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Homology Medicines to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Drugs) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Homology Medicines to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Homology Medicines has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Homology Medicines 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.
Training and development
– Homology Medicines has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Homology Medicines 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
– Homology Medicines has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Drugs) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Homology Medicines have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Homology Medicines | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Homology Medicines are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Homology Medicines is just above the Retail (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.
Skills based hiring in Retail (Drugs) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Homology Medicines has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Drugs) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Homology Medicines 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 Retail (Drugs) industry.
High dependence on Homology Medicines ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Homology Medicines still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Drugs) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Homology Medicines has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Homology Medicines supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Homology Medicines is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Homology Medicines vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Homology Medicines 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Homology Medicines 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Homology Medicines needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Drugs) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Homology Medicines can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Homology Medicines is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Homology Medicines is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Homology Medicines to provide better information regarding Retail (Drugs) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Homology Medicines products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Drugs) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Homology Medicines has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Homology Medicines Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Homology Medicines are -
Loyalty marketing
– Homology Medicines 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Homology Medicines is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Homology Medicines can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Drugs) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Homology Medicines to increase its market reach. Homology Medicines 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Homology Medicines 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 Retail (Drugs) industry.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Homology Medicines 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
– Homology Medicines can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Homology Medicines has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Drugs) industry. This can help Homology Medicines to build a more holistic ecosystem for Homology Medicines products in the Retail (Drugs) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Retail (Drugs) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Homology Medicines in the Retail (Drugs) industry. Now Homology Medicines can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Homology Medicines 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Drugs) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Homology Medicines can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Homology Medicines has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Drugs) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Homology Medicines to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Homology Medicines to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Homology Medicines can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Homology Medicines operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Drugs) sector.
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 Homology Medicines 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.
Threats Homology Medicines External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Homology Medicines are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Drugs) industry are lowering. It can presents Homology Medicines with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Drugs) sector.
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. Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Drugs) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Homology Medicines can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Homology Medicines in Retail (Drugs) industry. The Retail (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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Homology Medicines is facing in Retail (Drugs) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Homology Medicines can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Homology Medicines prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Homology Medicines 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 Retail (Drugs) industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Homology Medicines 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.
Increasing wage structure of Homology Medicines
– 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 Homology Medicines.
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 Homology Medicines business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Homology Medicines 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 Retail (Drugs) industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Homology Medicines Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines 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 Homology Medicines needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
