Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments
In June 1997, Thailand's currency became the object of intense speculation as the country's balance of payments was in tatters. Amidst the government's efforts to turn things around, finance minister Dr Amnuay Viravan resigned over policy disagreements and the Thai stock market plunged as investors feared a currency devaluation. As Amnuay's successor, Thanong, tried to pick up the pieces, he uncovered an awful secret: Thailand's central bank had virtually no liquid foreign exchange reserves left to defend its exchange rate. What action should he take? And, more importantly, what action could he take?
Authors :: Michael J. Enright, James Newton, Mary Ho, Elyssa Tran
Swot Analysis of "Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments" written by Michael J. Enright, James Newton, Mary Ho, Elyssa Tran includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Thailand's Currency facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Currency, Economics, Government, International business and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments casestudy better are - – technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thailand's Currency, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thailand's Currency 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thailand's Currency
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 Thailand's Currency
Strengths Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thailand's Currency in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Thailand's Currency 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 Thailand's Currency is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Thailand's Currency
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Thailand's Currency does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Thailand's Currency is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Michael J. Enright, James Newton, Mary Ho, Elyssa Tran can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Strong track record of project management
– Thailand's Currency is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Thailand's Currency is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Thailand's Currency in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Thailand's Currency has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Thailand's Currency 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Thailand's Currency 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Thailand's Currency to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Thailand's Currency to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Thailand's Currency in the sector have low bargaining power. Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Thailand's Currency to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Thailand's Currency is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Thailand's Currency 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.
Weaknesses Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Thailand's Currency 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Thailand's Currency, firm in the HBR case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Thailand's Currency products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Thailand's Currency needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Thailand's Currency has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Thailand's Currency is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Thailand's Currency needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Thailand's Currency to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments HBR case study mentions - Thailand's Currency 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments, in the dynamic environment Thailand's Currency has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Thailand's Currency has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Thailand's Currency has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Thailand's Currency even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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 Thailand's Currency supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thailand's Currency vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Thailand's Currency is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments | 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments are -
Buying journey improvements
– Thailand's Currency can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Thailand's Currency 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Thailand's Currency to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Thailand's Currency to increase its market reach. Thailand's Currency will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Thailand's Currency 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, Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Thailand's Currency 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Thailand's Currency 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Thailand's Currency is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Thailand's Currency can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Thailand's Currency can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Thailand's Currency operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Thailand's Currency has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Thailand's Currency to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments case study. Thailand's Currency 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 Thailand's Currency 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Thailand's Currency 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.
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 Thailand's Currency in the consumer business. Now Thailand's Currency can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments are -
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 Thailand's Currency.
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. Thailand's Currency needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Thailand's Currency 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.
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 Thailand's Currency in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thailand's Currency can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Thailand's Currency is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Thailand's Currency has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Thailand's Currency 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thailand's Currency 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments, Thailand's Currency 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Thailand's Currency 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. Thailand's Currency can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Thailand's Currency can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
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. Thailand's Currency can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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 Thailand: An Imbalance of Payments 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 Thailand's Currency needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
