GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division
An assistant account manager is evaluating a loan request from a small trucking company that is planning to expand its fleet in order to bid for a large trucking contract. The decision is centered on the firm's past performance and growth record. Particular attention is paid to the firm's chances of winning the trucking contract and its ability to service the increased debt. New highway safety regulations for trucking companies also play a role in the case.
Swot Analysis of "GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division" written by Elizabeth M.A. Grasby, Tim Silk includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Trucking Contract facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Regulation and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trucking Contract, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trucking Contract 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trucking Contract
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Trucking Contract
Strengths GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trucking Contract in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Trucking Contract 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Trucking Contract is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Trucking Contract is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Trucking Contract has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Trucking Contract is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Trucking Contract has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trucking Contract to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Learning organization
- Trucking Contract 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 Trucking Contract is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Trucking Contract is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trucking Contract to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trucking Contract to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Trucking Contract 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 Trucking Contract in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Trucking Contract has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Trucking Contract 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.
Weaknesses GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division, is just above the industry average. Trucking Contract needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 Trucking Contract has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division, it seems that the employees of Trucking Contract 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Trucking Contract needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Trucking Contract 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 - GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Trucking Contract is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
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 Trucking Contract supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Trucking Contract vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Trucking Contract has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division HBR case study mentions - Trucking Contract 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Trucking Contract has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division | 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Trucking Contract 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Trucking Contract has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Trucking Contract is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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.
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 Trucking Contract in the consumer business. Now Trucking Contract can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Trucking Contract can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Trucking Contract can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Trucking Contract 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 Trucking Contract to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Trucking Contract can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trucking Contract 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Trucking Contract 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trucking Contract 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trucking Contract to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Trucking Contract has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Trucking Contract to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division case study. Trucking Contract can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Trucking Contract to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division are -
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Trucking Contract needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Trucking Contract.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Trucking Contract demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Trucking Contract with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Trucking Contract can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Trucking Contract in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Trucking Contract 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
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. Trucking Contract 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Trucking Contract is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Trucking Contract has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Trucking Contract needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Trucking Contract high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Environmental challenges
– Trucking Contract 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. Trucking Contract can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 GE Capital Canada: Commercial Equipment Financing Division 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 Trucking Contract needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.