Microbix Biosystems Inc. (MBX) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Microbix Biosystems Inc. (Canada)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Microbix Biosystems Inc. is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Microbix Biosystems Inc.

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Microbix Biosystems Inc. can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Microbix Biosystems Inc., and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Microbix Biosystems Inc. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Microbix Biosystems Inc.
2. Improving business portfolio management of Microbix Biosystems Inc.
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Biotechnology & Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Microbix Biosystems Inc.

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Strengths of Microbix Biosystems Inc. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Microbix Biosystems Inc. are -

Ability to recruit top talent

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. is one of the leading players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry in Canada. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Canada. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Diverse revenue streams

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. is present in almost all the verticals within the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. This has provided Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Microbix Biosystems Inc. comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Biotechnology & 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.

Digital Transformation in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

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

Learning organization

- Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Microbix Biosystems Inc. emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Training and development

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. is one of the most innovative firm in Biotechnology & Drugs sector.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry. The technology infrastructure of Canada 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

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

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Weaknesses of Microbix Biosystems Inc. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Microbix Biosystems Inc. are -

Lack of clear differentiation of Microbix Biosystems Inc. products

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

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Microbix Biosystems Inc. is one of the leading players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry in last five years.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Microbix Biosystems Inc. has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry over the last five years. Microbix Biosystems Inc. even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Microbix Biosystems Inc. needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Microbix Biosystems Inc. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Microbix Biosystems Inc. is planning to shift buying processes online.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Canada, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Microbix Biosystems Inc. has high operating costs in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Microbix Biosystems Inc. lucrative customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Microbix Biosystems Inc. has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Microbix Biosystems Inc. is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry, but Microbix Biosystems Inc. needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Microbix Biosystems Inc. to focus more on services in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Canada, Microbix Biosystems Inc. needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

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Microbix Biosystems Inc. Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Microbix Biosystems Inc. are -

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Microbix Biosystems Inc. in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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. Microbix Biosystems Inc. can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. can develop new processes and procedures in Biotechnology & 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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. Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Loyalty marketing

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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Threats Microbix Biosystems Inc. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Microbix Biosystems Inc. are -

Learning curve for new practices

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

Environmental challenges

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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. Microbix Biosystems Inc. can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Biotechnology & Drugs 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.

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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry and other sectors.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. prominent markets.

Regulatory challenges

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry regulations.

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 Microbix Biosystems Inc..

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. Microbix Biosystems Inc. 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Biotechnology & Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Microbix Biosystems Inc. with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Biotechnology & Drugs sector.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Microbix Biosystems Inc. in Biotechnology & Drugs industry. The Biotechnology & 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Microbix Biosystems Inc. has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Microbix Biosystems Inc. needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Biotechnology & 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.

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 Microbix Biosystems Inc. business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Microbix Biosystems Inc. Template, Example

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

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