Previously we saw the SWOT analysis of Fortis Healthcare, today let’s look at the SWOT Analysis of Merck & Co.
Merck & Co. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company and one of the leading pharmaceutical health care companies in the world. Its main business is medicines, vaccines, biologics, and animal products. They follow great strategies to handle the world’s critical health threats using modern medicinal technology.
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In this case study we will learn the SWOT Analysis of Merck & Co. but before that let’s know more about the company.
About Merck & Co.
For over 130 years, Merck (It is known as MSD outside Canada & U.S.A) has been working out to bring medicines and vaccines forward for dangerous diseases to save and healthify lives. The company reaches out to patients by increasing access to health care through policies, programs, schemes, and partnerships. The company is accountable to deliver high-quality medicines and services to patients.
MSD comes forefront in research about preventing diseases including cancer, Ebola, infectious diseases like HIV as well as animal diseases. The company has around 74k employees working currently, research and development investment in 2020 is $ 13.6 B, total philanthropy in 2019 is $ 3.1B.
| Founder | George Merck |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1891 |
| Origin | New York, USA |
| No. of Employees | 74000 (2020) |
| Company Type | Public |
| Market Cap | USD 209.29 Billion (2021) |
| Annual Revenue | USD 47.994 Billion (2020) |
| Net Income/ Profit | USD 7.067 Billion (2020) |
Products Provided by Merck & Co. :
Following are the different products offered by Merck & Co.
- Pharmaceuticals
- Generic Drugs
- Over the counter Drugs
- Vaccines
- Diagnostics
Competitors of Merck & Co. :
Some of the top competitors of Merck & Co. are listed below
- Pfizer
- Johnson & Johnson
- Eli Lilly
- GSK
- Sanofi
SWOT Analysis of Merck & Co.
SWOT Analysis of any Company describes their Strengths and Weaknesses, the inherent conditions of the company and Opportunities & Threats, the external conditions of the company. SWOT Analysis helps the decision-makers of the corporation to plan a strategic plan following the interior and external factors of the corporation.
1. Strengths of Merck & Co.
Strengths are known as capabilities or available resources that a company uses efficiently and effectively for its development and overall growth.
- Highly Skilled Workforce – Merck & Co. has developed very skillful staff through successful training and learning programs. It uses huge resources in human resource training and development. And as a result, employees become highly talented and motivated to achieve the targets and revert the benefits to the company.
- Strong Dealer Company – It has developed such a friendly culture among all dealers and distributors where they work together for common goals and can achieve them easily. The staff not only promotes the products but also invests some amount in training and human development so consumers can gain maximum benefits out of the products hence consumer’s satisfaction is also being taken into consideration by the company.
- Reliable Supplier – Reliability is considered as an important value for Merck & Co, So the company has a strong base of reliable suppliers of every raw material and resource hence that enables the company to overcome all the barriers of the supply chain and provide material on time.
- High Level of Customer Satisfaction – Merck & Co. is a well-known and sufficiently successful company but it always pays attention to consumer satisfaction. The company has managed to keep a dedicated customer relationship and always tries to achieve good responses from customers. It always takes care of potential customers.
- Automation of Activities – This strength of Merck & Co. brings consistency of work and maintains the high quality of products throughout the year. and as a result, the company improves technically and manages good growth in the market by meeting the demands of the consumers.
2. Weaknesses of Merck & Co.
This is the pain area of the organization where it doesn’t have the resources or skills. The business has got to work upon these areas so that they’re not left behind from the competition.
- Product Demand Forecasting – Merck & Co. is not very good at predicting the demands so it leads to a higher rate of missing the opportunities compared to its competitors. It incurs a loss and ends up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in a channel.
- Financial Planning – The company’s financial strategy and planning are not done properly and are not manageable sometimes. Due to a lack of financial resources, it becomes quite tough for a company to grow and stay in the market to meet demands.
- Market Research – For any successful company market research becomes very important to grow high but MSD does not conduct market research regularly. As a result, decisions are taken based on old data, so sometimes it doesn’t meet the customers’ needs.
3. Opportunities for Merck & Co.
Opportunity is an external factor that helps a company to get a competitive advantage by using expected market trends.
- Transport industry – The transport industry is flourishing very fast for the past few years so this has reduced the cost of transportation for larger distances. Which becomes beneficial for Merck to curtail its overall cost.
- Globalization – Increasing globalization has opened many doors in front of Merck to expand the business across more countries, entering into new markets, making use of new technologies, doing innovative experiments with other country members, and making the company more developed.
- Government Policy Changes – Green government drive initiative provides an opportunity for Merck to sell the products to federal and state government contractors. Besides, the government’s reduction in the tax will be beneficial for the company to make more profits, and the saved amount from taxation could be used in development.
4. Threats of Merck & Co.
Threats are the external factors that can cause harm and hinder the development of the company. These factors should be addressed as soon as possible to avoid any major damage or harm to the organization.
- Technological Development by Competitors – Few competitors are enhancing their technological advances & tools within the market and it becomes a threat to Merck as new as well as some old customers will switch to other industries might be because of more advanced technology and it will cause a loss to Merck.
- Exchange Rate – The exchange rate in the international market keeps fluctuating at it affects all multinational companies including Merck. It supplies the products globally but the suppliers are local so the exchange rate becomes a hurdle. And sometimes international regulations on trade requires consent which makes the trade longer and time-consuming.
- Political Uncertainties – Political changes in the country affect big industries and if the government’s policies are not favorable then it affects negatively the growth of the company, hence Merck has to deal with political uncertainties within the country.
Conclusion
As we saw that Merck & Co. is one of the leading and successful pharmaceutical organizations in the world which has got many strengths and opportunities to develop in the future. The company has a loyal customer base because of its high level of customer satisfaction. It needs to work on its research and development department to grab opportunities and reduce its threats.
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