SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Maharashtra Seamless (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Maharashtra Seamless is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maharashtra Seamless
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Maharashtra Seamless can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maharashtra Seamless, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maharashtra Seamless 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 Seamless can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Maharashtra Seamless
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maharashtra Seamless
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Iron & Steel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Maharashtra Seamless
Strengths of Maharashtra Seamless | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maharashtra Seamless are -
Strong track record of project management in the Iron & Steel industry
– Maharashtra Seamless is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Maharashtra Seamless 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 Iron & Steel industry. The technology infrastructure of India is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Maharashtra Seamless
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Maharashtra Seamless does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Maharashtra Seamless in Iron & Steel industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Maharashtra Seamless is present in almost all the verticals within the Iron & Steel industry. This has provided Maharashtra Seamless 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.
Learning organization
- Maharashtra Seamless 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 Seamless is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Maharashtra Seamless emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Maharashtra Seamless comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Iron & Steel 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 Iron & Steel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Maharashtra Seamless digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Maharashtra Seamless 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Maharashtra Seamless has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Maharashtra Seamless 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.
Training and development
– Maharashtra Seamless has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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
– Maharashtra Seamless is one of the most innovative firm in Iron & Steel sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Maharashtra Seamless is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel 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.
Weaknesses of Maharashtra Seamless | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maharashtra Seamless are -
High dependence on Maharashtra Seamless ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Maharashtra Seamless still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Iron & Steel industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Maharashtra Seamless has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Iron & Steel industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Maharashtra Seamless 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Maharashtra Seamless needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Iron & Steel industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Maharashtra Seamless can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Maharashtra Seamless is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Maharashtra Seamless has high operating costs in the Iron & Steel industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Maharashtra Seamless lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Maharashtra Seamless products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Maharashtra Seamless needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Maharashtra Seamless, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Maharashtra Seamless has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Maharashtra Seamless is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Maharashtra Seamless to provide better information regarding Iron & Steel products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Maharashtra Seamless needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Maharashtra Seamless is just above the Iron & Steel 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, Maharashtra Seamless needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Maharashtra Seamless has some of the most successful models in the Iron & Steel industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Maharashtra Seamless should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Maharashtra Seamless Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Maharashtra Seamless are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maharashtra Seamless can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maharashtra Seamless has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Iron & Steel industry. This can help Maharashtra Seamless to build a more holistic ecosystem for Maharashtra Seamless products in the Iron & Steel industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Maharashtra Seamless can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Iron & Steel industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Maharashtra Seamless 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 Seamless to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Maharashtra Seamless can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Iron & Steel industry.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Maharashtra Seamless is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Maharashtra Seamless can utilize new technology in the field of Iron & Steel industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Maharashtra Seamless 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Maharashtra Seamless can develop new processes and procedures in Iron & Steel 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Maharashtra Seamless to increase its market reach. Maharashtra Seamless 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Maharashtra Seamless in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Iron & Steel industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Maharashtra Seamless can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Iron & Steel 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.
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 Seamless can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Seamless 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 Seamless External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Maharashtra Seamless are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Maharashtra Seamless is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Maharashtra Seamless 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 Seamless can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel 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 Maharashtra Seamless in the Iron & Steel sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Maharashtra Seamless 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.
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 Seamless needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Iron & Steel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maharashtra Seamless 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maharashtra Seamless 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 Iron & Steel industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Maharashtra Seamless has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Iron & Steel industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Maharashtra Seamless needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Iron & Steel 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.
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 Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Maharashtra Seamless with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.
Increasing wage structure of Maharashtra Seamless
– 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 Seamless.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Maharashtra Seamless may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Iron & Steel sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Maharashtra Seamless in Iron & Steel industry. The Iron & Steel 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Maharashtra Seamless Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Maharashtra Seamless 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 Seamless 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 Seamless 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 Seamless 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 Seamless needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.