Executive Summary

Posted: January 4th, 2023

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Executive Summary

Companies need to understand how their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats could impact on their operations and embrace suitable measures to mitigate any harmful features. The study elaborates on how Pfizer, which is a big pharmaceutical company in the U.S., could deal with its ineffective approach towards building workplace diversity. The company can mitigate the issue by hiring workers from different backgrounds, formulating a guiding statement, and by embracing practices that encourage free expression of one’s feelings and ideologies. Promoting diversity shall benefit Pfizer in many ways, including fostering togetherness and promoting innovation and creativity. Pfizer can overcome the threat of a lack of qualified workers in all stations by taking all workers through training programs without looking at their background or affiliation. It emerges that applying mechanisms to mitigate the weaknesses and threats and infusing them with the organizational strengths and opportunities will help to achieve more satisfying results.

Strategic Management – SWOT Analysis of U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

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Table of Contents

Introduction                                                                                                                                      5

Company Overview                                                                                                                         5

Organizational Culture                                                                                                                     6

Company Dynamics                                                                                                                         8

Organizational Behavior                                                                                                                  9

Conclusion                                                                                                                                     11

References                                                                                                                                      13

Introduction

The study on how the U.S. pharmaceutical sector can advance performance and reach to care shows that the industry contributes so much to the economy. America owns about 45% of the globe’s pharmaceutical market, and companies in the sector continue to record high returns. Many companies such as Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Gilead Sciences are recording considerable profits every year, an indication that the sector is recording substantial expansion. The operators in the American pharmaceutical industry should consider how their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats determine their ability to compete as well as meet the customers’ wants and take measures to address the areas that may have severe effects on the organizational outcome. The study pays particular attention to Pfizer, which is one of the leading operators in the American pharmaceutical industry in terms of revenue generation. Pfizer should consider how it may overcome the difficult issues by considering how the business dynamics and organizational behavior may contribute towards embracing the proper measures. The company can become more productive by improving on its strengths, and by taking advantage of its opportunities, as well as by adopting adequate mechanisms to deal with the weaknesses and threats. 

Company Overview

Pfizer is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and the world with its head office in New York City. Pfizer is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and falls in the top 60 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies by total revenue (Pfizer, 2018). The company generated a total of $52.8 billion in terms of revenue in 2018, an increase of 2% compared to 2017 (Pfizer, 2018). Its operations entailing essential health produced $23.5 billion, and innovative health generated $29.3 billion in revenue (Pfizer, 2018). Pfizer’s revenue surpasses those of some of the widely recognized pharmaceutical companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, that generated $30.6 billion in 2018 and Gilead Sciences that generated $22.1 billion. Pfizer makes and produces a wide range of vaccines and medicines for a broad range of medical fields such as endocrinology, immunology, and cardiology (Chandler & Samaroo, 2010). Some of its renowned products include Celebrex, which has anti-inflammatory properties, Diflucan that controls fungi, and Liptor that regulates cholesterol in the blood (Pfizer, 2018). The company continues to improve the various aspects of its operations to remain competitive and to add to its bottom line.  

Pfizer employs various strategic approaches to remain the leading company in the pharmaceutical sector. The management perceives the formation of partnerships to be a practical approach to expanding its portfolio and strengthening its position in the American market (Pfizer, 2018). The firm, for example, partnered with Bar-Ilan University in 2015 to facilitate research in DNA structure. Pfizer almost formed a merger with Allergan in 2016, but the deal did not materialize due to federal legislation that forbids mergers that may encourage tax evasion (Pfizer, 2018). The company has research and development (R&D) centers in various parts of the part, including in Pearl River, New York, Sandwich, the United Kingdom, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, among several other places. 

Organizational Culture

Pfizer’s internal strengths and weaknesses influence its organizational culture in significant ways. An example of internal strength is the company has a highly skilled workforce that has passed through adequate training and empowerment programs. The management puts so much investment in training and developing the workforce resulting in a staff that is highly skilled and motivated (Pfizer, 2018). Experienced and competent workers employ approaches that make it possible to achieve customer satisfaction and employee retention. The other internal strength at Pfizer that contributes towards the company’s excellent performance is the good leadership approaches that leaders use to incorporate everyone in decision-making (Pfizer, 2018). The leaders embrace transformative and democratic leadership approaches that change workers into productive people and encourage equality at the place of work (Pfizer, 2018). The company’s primary internal weakness that impacts on the corporation’s culture is inadequate effort to improve diversity among the members of staff (Pfizer, 2018). The company does not appear to be successful in implementing structures that embrace other cultures, and consequently, most of its stations have a majority of workers coming from specific cultures (Pfizer, 2018). The management should promote the strengths and find ways of addressing the weakness to build the organizational culture. 

The organizational leadership at Pfizer may address issues touching on the company’s culture by considering the effects of internal opportunities and threats. The employees’ core competencies offer the chance to improve outcomes because it is possible to apply some of the latest and most effective approaches to perform business practices (Pfizer, 2018). The skilled workforce uses new technology to enhance operations and utilizes features that attract new customers. Regarding the threats, Pfizer experiences a shortage of experienced employees in some of its international stations, which derails its desire to hire as many qualified personnel as possible (Pfizer, 2018). The threat could cause a situation where the company does not record a similar outcome in all its stations across the world. The evaluation shows that Pfizer could improve its culture by taking the opportunity of the techniques its skillful workers introduce at the company and by ensuring that all its stations have employees who are competent enough to handle activities without much difficulty. 

Company Dynamics

The leadership at Pfizer should consider some of the core features touching on the organizational dynamics that could help to address the weakness and threat that are equally harmful. The management, for example, should consider how achieving a diversified team is likely to impact on the company’s internal structure before proceeding with implementing strategies (Davis et al., 2017). The leaders, in this case, may look at how other employees are likely to react, and how adding employees from different backgrounds would impact on the seller-customer relationship. It is possible to encounter some form of resistance while encouraging diversity at the workplace, especially from workers who may not be comfortable working alongside people who belong to other backgrounds (Davis et al., 2017). Overcoming such resistance may entail reinstating the importance of diversity, and understanding why some workers do not welcome the idea of working with their colleagues from other backgrounds. 

The groups working on training all workers, regardless of their background, should consider how financial commitment may impact on the company. The financial team should first identify whether the company is in a position to finance the training of all its workers before assessing the possible impact of the commitment (Davis et al., 2017). Training workers, especially in stations where a majority of employees lack necessary skills, should happen at a time when the organization is financially capable of sponsoring the programs without suffering any fluctuation or shortage that could have fatal effects. Alternatively, the company may choose to train only a few workers at any given time to avoid incurring the high cost associated with the practice (Davis et al., 2017). Encouraging some workers to cater to their training fees may be a suitable approach that may help to cut costs, although it may not be as motivational as sponsoring the worker throughout the process. 

The company should apply strategies aimed at mitigating the weaknesses and threats while infusing them with techniques aimed at improving how the firm benefits from the strengths and opportunities. The firm should not let a few stations distort its reputation as a company that hires skilled laborers, and work hard to train everyone across all centers. The business should know that making good use of the opportunities that come with having a qualified staff could be beneficial to the company in many ways, including being able to execute operations very fast without committing a lot of mistakes. The management should not use a lot of time dealing with the weaknesses and threats and forgetting about improving the strengths and utilizing the opportunity because the effort may be futile. 

Organizational Behavior

Working towards forming an appropriate organizational behavior may help to address the weakness and threat that could affect performance. The leaders should acquire more insight into how to build diversity at the place of work, as well as know the possible merits of building a diversified workforce. Transformative and democratic leaders should devise strategic plans that help to attain workplace diversity. The method may entail hiring workers from different backgrounds and training them to work as a team (Hill et al., 2017). The team in charge of human resource management should look at the core competencies workers from diverse cultural backgrounds present without paying more attention to specific groups or races. Pfizer may embrace a mission statement to drive its desire to create a diverse workforce. It may not be necessary to refine the organization’s mission, but it may be helpful to formulate new guidelines and inspirations that guide the company in achieving diversity. Pfizer would strengthen diversity by showing interest in safeguarding the initiative and take an unwavering stand on the matter (Hill et al., 2017). The management, for instance, should promote the creation of affinity groups such as Asian American, LGBT, and African American groups to allow workers to enjoy their affiliation. Forming diversity task forces and councils may also serve instrumental functions in encouraging diversity at Pfizer, thereby helping it to overcome the weakness. Forming a situation where employees go about their duties and obligations without considering their background shall increase interaction with each other, and offers the chance to learn new insights from each other (Hill et al., 2017). Addressing the crucial aspect of organizational behavior helps the pharmaceutical company to overcome its weakness and improve the way of responding to emerging issues. 

Applying strategies to build workplace diversity shall present many other benefits to Pfizer that would help workers to be more productive. Building workplace diversity allows for the infusion of a variety of views and perspectives, which is essential when it comes to planning and implementing a business plan. Encouraging workplace diversity is likely to benefit Pfizer because the approach facilitates creativity. Foma (2014) writes that people from diverse backgrounds tend to have unique experiences and insight on how to handle various tasks. Diversity creates a situation where people see the same thing differently, thereby increasing the chance of getting new ideas (Foma, 2014). The other benefits Pfizer would enjoy by overcoming its weakness is an increased level of innovation, improved problem-solving approaches, and advanced forms of making decisions (Foma, 2014). Although Pfizer generates more revenue than Abbot Laboratories, it can borrow valuable lessons from the latter regarding suitable ways of promoting diversity. Abbot adheres to a statement that encourages everyone to utilize their unique backgrounds and experiences to form solutions that form a better and healthier world (Abbot, 2020). Abbot does not only hire workers from different backgrounds but also permits each person to express their feelings and opinions without fear of contradiction. Pfizer may also acquire valuable lessons from Johnson & Johnson that is one of the pharmaceutical companies that is doing considerably well in the American and international markets. The company’s mission reflects the firm’s desire to be diverse, and the same happens with its vision that requires every person to utilize their unique skills and experiences to find better remedies (Johnson & Johnson, 2020). Pfizer’s management should not hesitate to deal with the weakness that may affect the organizational outcome, which makes it necessary to start working on the problem as soon as possible. 

Advancing the way leaders employ the transformative and democratic leadership approaches may help to deal with the threat of inadequately qualified employees in some stations. The transformative leaders should know the method requires them to transform employees such that they become more competent and skillful in their activities (Leslie & Palmisano, 2014). Democratic leadership, on the other hand, calls for equal representation regardless of one’s background and affiliation. The leaders should consider the effects of having less experienced workers and consider transforming everyone into more qualified individuals who apply the right techniques to handle their various roles (Leslie & Palmisano, 2014). Training and empowering the employees without employing any form of discrimination offers an equal chance for everyone to enhance their awareness of what it takes to achieve the best results. 

Conclusion

Pfizer is one of the leading companies in the American pharmaceutical sector that stands a high chance of performing better by improving employee diversity, which is its major weakness and ensuring all its workers are competent enough. The multinational corporation does well in the way it trains and empowers its employees in some stations, and its leadership styles, but does not apply the best approach to encourage diversity. The ineffective diversity approaches deny Pfizer the benefits that come with hiring workers from different backgrounds, such as increased performance, improved innovation, and enlightenment. The management at Pfizer should not relax because some of its stations have qualified and well-trained workers because the number of skilled and competent employees in some centers is insignificant. The implementers of the appropriate designs should not allow features of the organization’s dynamics to interfere with any process and should apply elements of the organizational behavior that would promote the realization of the desired objectives. The implementers should ensure that the intervention processes do not have devastating financial implications on the company because some of the commitments may require much financial commitment. More fundamentally, the company should consider how its strengths and opportunities influence its activities and examine the effects while dealing with weaknesses and threats.

References

Abbot. (2020). Abbot. Retrieved from

www.abbott.com/

Chandler & Samaroo, 2010). Pfizer and the Greenstone brand: A sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of Medical Marketing, 10(2), doi: 10.1057/jmm.2009.51

Davis, S., et al. (2017). Understanding business dynamics: An integrated data systems for America’s future. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1, 1-12.

Foma, E. (2014). Impact of workplace diversity. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 3(1), 382-390.

Hill, C., Schilling, M., & Jones, G. (2017). Strategic management: An integrated approach theory & cases. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Johnson & Johnson. (2020). Johnson & Johnson. Retrieved from

www.jnj.com/

Leslie, J., & Palmisano, K. (2014). The leadership challenge in the pharmaceutical sector what critical capabilities are missing in leadership talent and how can they be developed. New York, NY: Center for Creative Leadership.

Pfizer. (2018). Pfizer. Retrieved from

www.pfizer.com/