SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Mishra Dhatu Nigam (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Mishra Dhatu Nigam is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mishra Dhatu Nigam
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Mishra Dhatu Nigam can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mishra Dhatu Nigam, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Mishra Dhatu Nigam
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mishra Dhatu Nigam
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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam
Strengths of Mishra Dhatu Nigam | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mishra Dhatu Nigam are -
Organizational Resilience of Mishra Dhatu Nigam
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Mishra Dhatu Nigam does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Analytics focus
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Iron & Steel industry
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mishra Dhatu Nigam to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Iron & Steel industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mishra Dhatu Nigam to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam is one of the most innovative firm in Iron & Steel sector.
Learning organization
- Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Mishra Dhatu Nigam emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Iron & Steel
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Iron & Steel industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Mishra Dhatu Nigam in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mishra Dhatu Nigam in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Mishra Dhatu Nigam has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mishra Dhatu Nigam to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Digital Transformation in Iron & Steel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mishra Dhatu Nigam digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Iron & Steel industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Mishra Dhatu Nigam have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Mishra Dhatu Nigam | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mishra Dhatu Nigam are -
Employees’ less understanding of Mishra Dhatu Nigam strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Iron & Steel 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mishra Dhatu Nigam is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Iron & Steel industry, but Mishra Dhatu Nigam needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mishra Dhatu Nigam to focus more on services in the Iron & Steel industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Mishra Dhatu Nigam is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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. Mishra Dhatu Nigam should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mishra Dhatu Nigam is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Mishra Dhatu Nigam to provide better information regarding Iron & Steel products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mishra Dhatu Nigam has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry over the last five years. Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mishra Dhatu Nigam products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mishra Dhatu Nigam needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mishra Dhatu Nigam is planning to shift buying processes online.
Mishra Dhatu Nigam Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Mishra Dhatu Nigam are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Iron & Steel sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Mishra Dhatu Nigam to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mishra Dhatu Nigam to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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, Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mishra Dhatu Nigam can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Iron & Steel industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mishra Dhatu Nigam in the Iron & Steel industry. Now Mishra Dhatu Nigam can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Mishra Dhatu Nigam can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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, Mishra Dhatu Nigam is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Iron & Steel industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mishra Dhatu Nigam can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mishra Dhatu Nigam can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mishra Dhatu Nigam operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Iron & Steel sector.
Threats Mishra Dhatu Nigam External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Mishra Dhatu Nigam are -
Environmental challenges
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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. Mishra Dhatu Nigam can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel industry.
Increasing wage structure of Mishra Dhatu Nigam
– 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Mishra Dhatu Nigam with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
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.
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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mishra Dhatu Nigam is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mishra Dhatu Nigam can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Mishra Dhatu Nigam prominent markets.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Iron & Steel industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mishra Dhatu Nigam can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mishra Dhatu Nigam Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam 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 Mishra Dhatu Nigam needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.