SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Maharashtra Scooters (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Maharashtra Scooters is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maharashtra Scooters
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Maharashtra Scooters can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maharashtra Scooters, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Maharashtra Scooters
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maharashtra Scooters
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Misc. Capital Goods sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Maharashtra Scooters
Strengths of Maharashtra Scooters | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maharashtra Scooters are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Maharashtra Scooters in Misc. Capital Goods industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Misc. Capital Goods industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Maharashtra Scooters digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Ability to lead change in Misc. Capital Goods
– Maharashtra Scooters is one of the leading players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Maharashtra Scooters in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Maharashtra Scooters comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Maharashtra Scooters is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This has provided Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Maharashtra Scooters is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Learning organization
- Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Maharashtra Scooters emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– Maharashtra Scooters has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Maharashtra Scooters to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Maharashtra Scooters to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Training and development
– Maharashtra Scooters has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Maharashtra Scooters has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Capital Goods industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Maharashtra Scooters have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Capital Goods industry
– Maharashtra Scooters is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Maharashtra Scooters | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maharashtra Scooters are -
High dependence on Maharashtra Scooters ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Maharashtra Scooters still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Capital Goods industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Maharashtra Scooters has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Maharashtra Scooters, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Capital Goods industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Maharashtra Scooters has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Maharashtra Scooters has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Maharashtra Scooters should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Maharashtra Scooters 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Maharashtra Scooters has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Maharashtra Scooters is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, but Maharashtra Scooters needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Maharashtra Scooters to focus more on services in the Misc. Capital Goods industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Maharashtra Scooters has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Capital Goods industry over the last five years. Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Maharashtra Scooters needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Maharashtra Scooters 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry using digital technology.
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 Maharashtra Scooters supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Maharashtra Scooters is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Maharashtra Scooters vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Maharashtra Scooters Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Maharashtra Scooters are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Capital Goods industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Maharashtra Scooters can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Maharashtra Scooters 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
– Maharashtra Scooters can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maharashtra Scooters can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Maharashtra Scooters has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Capital Goods sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Maharashtra Scooters to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Maharashtra Scooters to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Maharashtra Scooters can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Maharashtra Scooters 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maharashtra Scooters has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Capital Goods industry. This can help Maharashtra Scooters to build a more holistic ecosystem for Maharashtra Scooters products in the Misc. Capital Goods industry by providing – 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 Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Maharashtra Scooters are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Capital Goods industry are lowering. It can presents Maharashtra Scooters with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Capital Goods sector.
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 Maharashtra Scooters.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Maharashtra Scooters business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maharashtra Scooters 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Maharashtra Scooters may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Environmental challenges
– Maharashtra Scooters 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. Maharashtra Scooters can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maharashtra Scooters 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
Increasing wage structure of Maharashtra Scooters
– 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 Maharashtra Scooters.
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. Maharashtra Scooters needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Maharashtra Scooters has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Maharashtra Scooters needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Misc. Capital Goods industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters 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 Maharashtra Scooters needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.