Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , HTG Molecular Diagnostics is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of HTG Molecular Diagnostics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that HTG Molecular Diagnostics can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the HTG Molecular Diagnostics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of HTG Molecular Diagnostics
2. Improving business portfolio management of HTG Molecular Diagnostics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Scientific & Technical Instr. sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of HTG Molecular Diagnostics
Strengths of HTG Molecular Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of HTG Molecular Diagnostics are -
Innovation driven organization
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics is one of the most innovative firm in Scientific & Technical Instr. sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Scientific & Technical Instr. 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.
Organizational Resilience of HTG Molecular Diagnostics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. HTG Molecular Diagnostics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps HTG Molecular Diagnostics to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Ability to lead change in Scientific & Technical Instr.
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled HTG Molecular Diagnostics in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled HTG Molecular Diagnostics to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of HTG Molecular Diagnostics have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at HTG Molecular Diagnostics emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
Analytics focus
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 Scientific & Technical Instr. 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of HTG Molecular Diagnostics in Scientific & Technical Instr. industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of HTG Molecular Diagnostics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of HTG Molecular Diagnostics are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As HTG Molecular Diagnostics is one of the leading players in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of HTG Molecular Diagnostics is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry, but HTG Molecular Diagnostics needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help HTG Molecular Diagnostics to focus more on services in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, HTG Molecular Diagnostics needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry, HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, HTG Molecular Diagnostics is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left HTG Molecular Diagnostics vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, HTG Molecular Diagnostics has high operating costs in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract HTG Molecular Diagnostics lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, HTG Molecular Diagnostics is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help HTG Molecular Diagnostics to provide better information regarding Scientific & Technical Instr. products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of HTG Molecular Diagnostics products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, HTG Molecular Diagnostics needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
HTG Molecular Diagnostics has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on HTG Molecular Diagnostics ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of HTG Molecular Diagnostics still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Scientific & Technical Instr. industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though HTG Molecular Diagnostics has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
HTG Molecular Diagnostics Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of HTG Molecular Diagnostics are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
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. HTG Molecular Diagnostics can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Scientific & Technical Instr. 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for HTG Molecular Diagnostics in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Scientific & Technical Instr. industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for HTG Molecular Diagnostics in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. Now HTG Molecular Diagnostics can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects HTG Molecular Diagnostics can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of HTG Molecular Diagnostics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. This can help HTG Molecular Diagnostics to build a more holistic ecosystem for HTG Molecular Diagnostics products in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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, HTG Molecular Diagnostics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. HTG Molecular Diagnostics can utilize new technology in the field of Scientific & Technical Instr. industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Scientific & Technical Instr. sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled HTG Molecular Diagnostics to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help HTG Molecular Diagnostics to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats HTG Molecular Diagnostics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of HTG Molecular Diagnostics are -
Regulatory challenges
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 Scientific & Technical Instr. industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Scientific & Technical Instr. industry are lowering. It can presents HTG Molecular Diagnostics with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Scientific & Technical Instr. sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that HTG Molecular Diagnostics is facing in Scientific & Technical Instr. sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, HTG Molecular Diagnostics needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Scientific & Technical Instr. 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.
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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics in the Scientific & Technical Instr. sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, HTG Molecular Diagnostics may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Scientific & Technical Instr. sector.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for HTG Molecular Diagnostics in Scientific & Technical Instr. industry. The Scientific & Technical Instr. 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.
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. HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 Scientific & Technical Instr. industry.
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.
Environmental challenges
– HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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. HTG Molecular Diagnostics can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Scientific & Technical Instr. industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of HTG Molecular Diagnostics Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.