SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
Strengths of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd are -
Organizational Resilience of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Iron & Steel industry
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Iron & Steel industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd staying ahead in the Iron & Steel industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Iron & Steel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Iron & Steel
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Iron & Steel sector.
Analytics focus
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Weaknesses of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd are -
Employees’ less understanding of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
High dependence on Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Iron & Steel industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Iron & Steel industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Iron & Steel industry, but Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to focus more on services in the Iron & Steel industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd in the Iron & Steel industry. Now Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to increase its market reach. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Iron & Steel industry. This can help Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd products in the Iron & Steel industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd are -
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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Iron & Steel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Iron & Steel industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd
– 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd.
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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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.
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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd.
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. Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Iron & Steel industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd 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 Srikalahasthi Pipes Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
