GLOBAL Sweeteners (3889) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for GLOBAL Sweeteners (Hong Kong)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , GLOBAL Sweeteners is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GLOBAL Sweeteners

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that GLOBAL Sweeteners can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the GLOBAL Sweeteners, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of GLOBAL Sweeteners can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of GLOBAL Sweeteners
2. Improving business portfolio management of GLOBAL Sweeteners
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of GLOBAL Sweeteners

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Strengths of GLOBAL Sweeteners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of GLOBAL Sweeteners are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of GLOBAL Sweeteners in Food Processing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of GLOBAL Sweeteners in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. GLOBAL Sweeteners has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps GLOBAL Sweeteners to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Food Processing

– GLOBAL Sweeteners is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Food Processing industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled GLOBAL Sweeteners in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Training and development

– GLOBAL Sweeteners has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Innovation driven organization

– GLOBAL Sweeteners is one of the most innovative firm in Food Processing sector.

Organizational Resilience of GLOBAL Sweeteners

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

Successful track record of launching new products

– GLOBAL Sweeteners has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of GLOBAL Sweeteners comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Food Processing 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Food Processing industry

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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

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

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Weaknesses of GLOBAL Sweeteners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of GLOBAL Sweeteners are -

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

High dependence on GLOBAL Sweeteners ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of GLOBAL Sweeteners still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Food Processing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though GLOBAL Sweeteners has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at GLOBAL Sweeteners, in the dynamic environment of Food Processing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. GLOBAL Sweeteners has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that GLOBAL Sweeteners needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Food Processing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at GLOBAL Sweeteners can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as GLOBAL Sweeteners is planning to shift buying processes online.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Food Processing industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, GLOBAL Sweeteners is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Food Processing industry.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As GLOBAL Sweeteners is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Food Processing industry in last five years.

Products dominated business model

– Even though GLOBAL Sweeteners has some of the most successful models in the Food Processing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. GLOBAL Sweeteners should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Need for greater diversity

– GLOBAL Sweeteners has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Lack of clear differentiation of GLOBAL Sweeteners products

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

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Food Processing industry, GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of GLOBAL Sweeteners is just above the Food Processing industry average. It 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.

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GLOBAL Sweeteners Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of GLOBAL Sweeteners are -

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Food Processing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. GLOBAL Sweeteners 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. GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

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 GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Manufacturing automation

– GLOBAL Sweeteners can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Food Processing sector. 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.

Loyalty marketing

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Food Processing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. GLOBAL Sweeteners can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Developing new processes and practices

– GLOBAL Sweeteners can develop new processes and procedures in Food Processing 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for GLOBAL Sweeteners in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Food Processing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, GLOBAL Sweeteners is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. GLOBAL Sweeteners can utilize new technology in the field of Food Processing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. GLOBAL Sweeteners can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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Threats GLOBAL Sweeteners External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of GLOBAL Sweeteners are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for GLOBAL Sweeteners in Food Processing industry. The Food Processing 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 Food Processing industry.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Food Processing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– GLOBAL Sweeteners has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, GLOBAL Sweeteners needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Food Processing 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.

Environmental challenges

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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. GLOBAL Sweeteners can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 Food Processing industry and other sectors.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

Regulatory challenges

– GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 Food Processing 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. GLOBAL Sweeteners 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.

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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that GLOBAL Sweeteners is facing in Food Processing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 GLOBAL Sweeteners in the Food Processing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of GLOBAL Sweeteners Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners 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 GLOBAL Sweeteners needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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