Theravance Biopharma, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

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

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


Order Now - Theravance Biopharma, Inc. SWOT Analysis
Check out- Theravance Biopharma, Inc. PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
Article continues after advertisement


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 known as SWOT Matrix.

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

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

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The primary purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Theravance Biopharma, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Theravance Biopharma, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Theravance Biopharma, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Theravance Biopharma, 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 Theravance Biopharma, Inc. are –


Read - Theravance Biopharma, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
Article continues after advertisement


  • 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.
  • Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
  • Strong Free Cash Flow – Theravance Biopharma, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
  • Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Theravance Biopharma, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
  • Strong distribution network – Over the years Theravance Biopharma, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
  • Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
  • Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Theravance Biopharma, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Theravance Biopharma, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
  • Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.


Weakness of Theravance Biopharma, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


Weakness are the areas where Theravance Biopharma, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a company can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.


Article continues after advertisement

  • Limited success outside core business – Even though Theravance Biopharma, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
  • 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.
  • Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Theravance Biopharma, 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.
  • The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Theravance Biopharma, Inc. are below the industry average.
  • 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. Theravance Biopharma, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
  • 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 Theravance Biopharma, Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
  • Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Theravance Biopharma, Inc. is spending above the industry average on Research and Development, it has not been able to compete with the leading players in the industry in terms of innovation. It has come across as a mature firm looking forward to bring out products based on tested features in the market.

Opportunities for Theravance Biopharma, Inc. – External Strategic Factors


Article continues after advertisement

  • Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Theravance Biopharma, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
  • The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Theravance Biopharma, Inc. to increase its profitability.
  • New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Theravance Biopharma, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
  • New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Theravance Biopharma, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
  • The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Theravance Biopharma, Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
  • 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 Theravance Biopharma, 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.
  • The new technology provides an opportunity to Theravance Biopharma, 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 Theravance Biopharma, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.

Threats Theravance Biopharma, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

  • Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
  • Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
  • Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Theravance Biopharma, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
  • Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Theravance Biopharma, Inc.
  • 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.
  • Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Theravance Biopharma, Inc.   in those markets.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Theravance Biopharma, 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 Theravance Biopharma, 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.

Article continues after advertisement

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Theravance Biopharma, 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 Theravance Biopharma, 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 Theravance Biopharma, 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.

Buy Custom Essay and Term Paper on SWOT Analysis / Matrix , Weighted SWOT Analysis of Theravance Biopharma, Inc.

Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

You can email us to get an example document of Weighted SWOT analysis.

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)