Heartsong: SWOT Analysis: Heartsong

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Heartsong has established itself globally as a provider of high-quality and innovative artificial heart valves. However, they are in need of a cost-efficient strategy that will cut their inventory carrying costs without negatively impacting their market share or brand image. In order for Heartsong to maintain their competitive advantage they must analyze their value chain and conduct a SWOT analysis to determine the viability of their company. Heartsong maintains their competitive advantage through its value chain-activities which are their primary and support activities. The primary activities are one of the core focuses of Heartsong's success, these activities are their operations, logistics, and marketing of their products. Without operations …show more content…
By conducting a SWOT analysis they will realize what exactly they lack when competing in the booming new market. With SWOT, Heartsong will realize that their strength in brand image, reputation, quality products, and reliable serviced can quickly become weaknesses due to their lack of finance. This ties into their weakness of not having enough financial resources to fund their expansion plan or to promote possible future business ventures. In terms of opportunities and threats, the firm would need to develop a business plan that will safeguard them from the fact that if they are unable to improve their inventory or distribution model then they will be unable to compete or meet the demands of the new valve …show more content…
Out of the firm's supportive activities the most important part of the value chain is the firm's research and development function. Research and development are what propelled the firm's reputation for providing "high-quality leading-edge" heart valves. This shows that the firm invests heavily into this department, however in order for them to accelerate the growth of the firm, the firm may need to look into cutting R&D costs. As their reputation has already been established, they just need to analyze whether their market position is secure enough to limit RD and focus on promoting their existing products. Furthermore, Heartsong needs to examine their cost structure and find a way to lower their inventory carrying costs, if they wish to be able to finance the new growth that the firm is seeking. To do this a tool in which they can implement is the use of benchmarking, which is the comparison of processes or practices of other companies within the same industry as a way to improve the firm's processes. Through benchmarking, Heartsong will be able to find new proven solutions to cut costs without losing their credibility in the market. Such a tool, most likely led to Heartsong's decision to outsource their logistic function to

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