Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Aerospace & Defense sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd
Strengths of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Aerospace & Defense industry
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Aerospace & Defense industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Aerospace & Defense industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Learning organization
- Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Aerospace & Defense sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd staying ahead in the Aerospace & Defense industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Aerospace & Defense industry. This has provided Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Aerospace & Defense industry
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Ability to lead change in Aerospace & Defense
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Aerospace & Defense industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Aerospace & Defense industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has high operating costs in the Aerospace & Defense industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Aerospace & Defense industry, Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Aerospace & Defense industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Aerospace & Defense industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
Skills based hiring in Aerospace & Defense industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Aerospace & Defense 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Aerospace & Defense industry, but Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to focus more on services in the Aerospace & Defense industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Aerospace & Defense industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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.
Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Aerospace & Defense industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Aerospace & Defense sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to increase its market reach. Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Aerospace & Defense sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Astra Micro Wave Products 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Aerospace & Defense industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd in the Aerospace & Defense industry. Now Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Aerospace & Defense 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.
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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Aerospace & Defense industry. This can help Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd products in the Aerospace & Defense industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
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. Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Aerospace & Defense industry and other sectors.
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 Aerospace & Defense industry are lowering. It can presents Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Aerospace & Defense sector.
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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd in the Aerospace & Defense sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Aerospace & Defense industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Aerospace & Defense sector.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd in Aerospace & Defense industry. The Aerospace & Defense 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.
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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd.
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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd 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. Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Aerospace & Defense industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products 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 Astra Micro Wave Products Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.