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BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund


In 2013, the long-delayed IPO of the Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Co. Ltd. (BTSC) took place, but in an unusually complex form. Instead of selling the shares of the company that owned the elevated railway concession, what was offered were investment units in Thailand's first publicly listed infrastructure mutual fund: the BTS Rail Mass Transit Growth Infrastructure Fund (BTSGIF). Proceeds from the IPO were used to acquire from BTSC the rights to the net farebox revenue generated from the railway. The investment exposed investors not only to the operating risk of the railway but to other types such as political risk.

Authors :: Pierre Hillion, Bowen White, Jean Wee

Topics :: Finance & Accounting

Tags :: IPO, Risk management, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund" written by Pierre Hillion, Bowen White, Jean Wee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Btsc Railway facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IPO, Risk management and Finance & Accounting.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Btsc Railway, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Btsc Railway operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Btsc Railway
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Btsc Railway




Strengths BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Btsc Railway in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund Harvard Business Review case study are -

Training and development

– Btsc Railway has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field

– Btsc Railway is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Btsc Railway in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Innovation driven organization

– Btsc Railway is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Learning organization

- Btsc Railway is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Btsc Railway is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Btsc Railway in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Btsc Railway has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Btsc Railway has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Btsc Railway has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Strong track record of project management

– Btsc Railway is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Btsc Railway is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Btsc Railway are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Organizational Resilience of Btsc Railway

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Btsc Railway does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

High brand equity

– Btsc Railway has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Btsc Railway to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.






Weaknesses BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund are -

Lack of clear differentiation of Btsc Railway products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Btsc Railway needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Btsc Railway is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Btsc Railway 's lucrative customers.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Btsc Railway has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Btsc Railway supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Btsc Railway vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund HBR case study mentions - Btsc Railway takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Btsc Railway has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Btsc Railway has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Btsc Railway is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Btsc Railway needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Btsc Railway to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Btsc Railway is planning to shift buying processes online.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund, it seems that the employees of Btsc Railway don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.




Opportunities BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Btsc Railway to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Btsc Railway to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Btsc Railway can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Btsc Railway in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Btsc Railway can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Btsc Railway operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Btsc Railway can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Finance & Accounting segment.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Btsc Railway can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Btsc Railway can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Manufacturing automation

– Btsc Railway can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Btsc Railway has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Btsc Railway to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Btsc Railway is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Btsc Railway can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Btsc Railway to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Buying journey improvements

– Btsc Railway can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Btsc Railway in the consumer business. Now Btsc Railway can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.




Threats BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Btsc Railway in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Btsc Railway can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Btsc Railway will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund, Btsc Railway may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Btsc Railway has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Btsc Railway needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Btsc Railway is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Btsc Railway with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Regulatory challenges

– Btsc Railway needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Finance & Accounting industry regulations.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Btsc Railway.

Environmental challenges

– Btsc Railway needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Btsc Railway can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Btsc Railway in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of BTS Skytrain Carve-Out: The Return of the Infrastructure Trust Fund is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Btsc Railway needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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