Gujarat State Petronet (GSPT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Natural Gas Utilities
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Gujarat State Petronet (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Gujarat State Petronet is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gujarat State Petronet
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Gujarat State Petronet can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gujarat State Petronet, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Gujarat State Petronet
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gujarat State Petronet
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Natural Gas Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gujarat State Petronet
Strengths of Gujarat State Petronet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gujarat State Petronet are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gujarat State Petronet in Natural Gas Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gujarat State Petronet in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. Gujarat State Petronet has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gujarat State Petronet to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Gujarat State Petronet is present in almost all the verticals within the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This has provided Gujarat State Petronet 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry
– Gujarat State Petronet has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gujarat State Petronet to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gujarat State Petronet to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Ability to lead change in Natural Gas Utilities
– Gujarat State Petronet is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Gujarat State Petronet in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Gujarat State Petronet does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Gujarat State Petronet is one of the most innovative firm in Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gujarat State Petronet is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in India. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in India. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Gujarat State Petronet comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Digital Transformation in Natural Gas Utilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gujarat State Petronet digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gujarat State Petronet has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses of Gujarat State Petronet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gujarat State Petronet are -
Skills based hiring in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gujarat State Petronet is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, but Gujarat State Petronet needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gujarat State Petronet to focus more on services in the Natural Gas Utilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gujarat State Petronet is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Gujarat State Petronet to provide better information regarding Natural Gas Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Gujarat State Petronet has high operating costs in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Gujarat State Petronet lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Gujarat State Petronet needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Natural Gas Utilities industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Gujarat State Petronet can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gujarat State Petronet is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Gujarat State Petronet is just above the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
High dependence on Gujarat State Petronet ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Gujarat State Petronet still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Natural Gas Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Gujarat State Petronet has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Gujarat State Petronet supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Gujarat State Petronet is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gujarat State Petronet vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ less understanding of Gujarat State Petronet strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Gujarat State Petronet 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Gujarat State Petronet, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Natural Gas Utilities industry. 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Gujarat State Petronet, in the dynamic environment of Natural Gas Utilities industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gujarat State Petronet has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Gujarat State Petronet Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Gujarat State Petronet are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gujarat State Petronet is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gujarat State Petronet can utilize new technology in the field of Natural Gas Utilities industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Gujarat State Petronet has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Natural Gas Utilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Gujarat State Petronet to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gujarat State Petronet to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Gujarat State Petronet can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gujarat State Petronet in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, 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, Gujarat State Petronet can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gujarat State Petronet operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Natural Gas Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Gujarat State Petronet can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gujarat State Petronet to increase its market reach. Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Gujarat State Petronet in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. Now Gujarat State Petronet can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gujarat State Petronet has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can help Gujarat State Petronet to build a more holistic ecosystem for Gujarat State Petronet products in the Natural Gas Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Gujarat State Petronet External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Gujarat State Petronet are -
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. Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Environmental challenges
– Gujarat State Petronet 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. Gujarat State Petronet can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gujarat State Petronet has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gujarat State Petronet needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gujarat State Petronet 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 Natural Gas Utilities 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 Gujarat State Petronet in the Natural Gas Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Gujarat State Petronet 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry regulations.
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 Gujarat State Petronet.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gujarat State Petronet 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gujarat State Petronet 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Natural Gas Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Gujarat State Petronet with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Increasing wage structure of Gujarat State Petronet
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Gujarat State Petronet.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Natural Gas Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gujarat State Petronet can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Gujarat State Petronet needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gujarat State Petronet Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet 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 Gujarat State Petronet needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
