Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. maintains its prominent position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the firm such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.


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The SWOT Analysis framework helps 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 enables the managers of the Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

  • SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
  • WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
  • ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
  •  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies
Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


As one of the leading companies in its industry, Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has numerous strengths that help 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 Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. are –


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  • Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.
  • Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Miragen Therapeutics, 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 developing new products – product innovation.
  • Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
  • Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
  • Strong Free Cash Flow – Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
  • Superb Performance in New Markets – Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has built expertise at entering new markets and making success of them. The expansion has helped the organization to build new revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the markets it operates in.
  • Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.


Weakness of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


Weakness are the areas where Miragen Therapeutics, 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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  • Limited success outside core business – Even though Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
  • 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 Miragen Therapeutics, 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. Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
  • The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. are below the industry average.
  • 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 Miragen Therapeutics, Inc.
  • The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.
  • High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.

Opportunities for Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. – External Strategic Factors


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  • The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. to increase its profitability.
  • The new technology provides an opportunity to Miragen Therapeutics, 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.
  • Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
  • Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
  • New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the company has invested vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales channel for Miragen Therapeutics, Inc.. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
  • Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc..
  • New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
  • 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 Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. in other product categories.

Threats Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

  • Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc.
  • Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Miragen Therapeutics, Inc.   in those markets.
  • 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.
  • Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
  • Liability laws in different countries are different and Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
  • Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
  • As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.
  • 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.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Miragen Therapeutics, 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 Miragen Therapeutics, 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 Miragen Therapeutics, 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 Miragen Therapeutics, 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 Miragen Therapeutics, 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)