Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is a useful technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. maintains its dominant position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis a highly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.

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The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The primary purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. are –

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Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
Strong Free Cash Flow – Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.
Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers & acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.
Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.

Weakness of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where an organization can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

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High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed opportunities compare to its competitors. One of the reason why the days inventory is high compare to its competitors is that Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.

Opportunities for Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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The new technology provides an opportunity to Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.
The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in other product categories.
Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to increase its profitability.
Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.

Threats Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.
No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

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SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

References / Citations & Bibliography

M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)