Answered You can hire a professional tutor to get the answer.
Write a 4 page essay on SWOT Analysis: Medline.Download file to see previous pages... Medline has differentiated its products from the products of its competitors. To avoid threats and to keep its pro
Write a 4 page essay on SWOT Analysis: Medline.
Download file to see previous pages...Medline has differentiated its products from the products of its competitors. To avoid threats and to keep its products differentiated, Medline uses patents, licenses and trademarks. Strength of Medline lies in that it is the industry leader in medicinal products. The sales growth of Medline has been very high and in 2010 the sales were of over $4 Billion. There has been a continuous increase in the annual sales of Medline and this increasing annual trend acts as strength for Medline. Quality is also the strength of Medline. Medline provides its customers with products that are of high quality. The company does not compromise on the quality of its products and that acts as strength because it helps in maintaining the positive brand image of Medline. Medline is an old manufacturer of medical products and customers trust its products. This level of trust with its customers acts as strength for the company. Another, strength is the wide assortment of products that it offers. It manufactures and distributes over 125,000 medical and surgical products to healthcare institutions and also the retail market. Such a large product range is an indicator of strength of a well-established firm. This is only possible if the firm has been successful in the market. Medline has not restricted itself to any one healthcare field, but it serves across all the markets related to healthcare, be it hospitals or home care agencies. The competitive advantage of the Medline is its biggest strength. Weaknesses: Strengths and weaknesses of a firm belong to the internal environment of the firm (Alkhafaji, Abbass F 2003) Major weakness of Medline is that in order to protect its brand image and also not to compromise on the quality of its products, even if its costs more than what the firm has anticipated. Another weakness of the firm is that invests too heavily in the Research &. Development department. This often results in failed innovations and the company has to bear the sunk costs because the team is unable to come up with a successful product. This happened only a very few times. But with such heavy investment, there is always a risk associated. Another weakness is that the company pays more attention to the customer value instead of its stock value. From the customers’ point of view this might be the strength but from the point of view of shareholders and the company itself this is a weakness. Medline protects its products through patents, licenses and trademarks but it does not put off the competition. Opportunities: The strength of Medline has carved the path of opportunities for the firm. Globalization is the biggest opportunity for the firm (Hitt, Michael A, R D. Ireland, and Robert E. Hoskisson 2011) It can exploit new markets. It can go for those markets that have yet not been tapped by the competitors. Medline distributes its products mainly within the Unites States. Export industry provides Medline with an opportunity. Medline can go global and start exporting its medical products to other countries as well. There is a continuous innovation taking place in Medline. The process of innovation could be used to come up with more sophisticated medicinal products for other countries as well. This will provide Medline with a whole new chunk of market that it could serve.
