8K Miles Software Services Ltd (8KMS) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Software & Programming
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for 8K Miles Software Services Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 8K Miles Software Services Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Software & Programming sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd
Strengths of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is one of the leading players in the Software & Programming 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Software & Programming industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – 8K Miles Software Services Ltd staying ahead in the Software & Programming industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Organizational Resilience of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing 8K Miles Software Services Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Software & Programming industry
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Software & Programming industry. The sustainable margins have also helped 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd in Software & Programming industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management in the Software & Programming industry
– 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Ability to lead change in Software & Programming
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is one of the leading players in the Software & Programming industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Software & Programming industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled 8K Miles Software Services Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at 8K Miles Software Services Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Software & Programming 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.
Weaknesses of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd are -
Need for greater diversity
– 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Software & Programming industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to provide better information regarding Software & Programming products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is one of the leading players in the Software & Programming industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Software & Programming industry in last five years.
Lack of clear differentiation of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, 8K Miles Software Services Ltd 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Software & Programming industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, 8K Miles Software Services Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Software & Programming industry, 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Skills based hiring in Software & Programming industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, 8K Miles Software Services 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.
8K Miles Software Services Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Software & Programming industry. This can help 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for 8K Miles Software Services Ltd products in the Software & Programming industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Software & Programming industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Buying journey improvements
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Software & Programming 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 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Software & Programming sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help 8K Miles Software Services Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Manufacturing automation
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Software & Programming 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at 8K Miles Software Services 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 Software & Programming industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that 8K Miles Software Services Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Software & Programming sector.
Loyalty marketing
– 8K Miles Software Services 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.
Threats 8K Miles Software Services Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd prominent markets.
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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Software & Programming industry are lowering. It can presents 8K Miles Software Services Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Software & Programming sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Software & Programming industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 8K Miles Software Services Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Software & Programming industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, 8K Miles Software Services Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Software & Programming 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.
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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd in the Software & Programming sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– 8K Miles Software Services 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. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Software & Programming industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on 8K Miles Software Services 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 Software & Programming industry and other sectors.
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. 8K Miles Software Services Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Software & Programming industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that 8K Miles Software Services Ltd is facing in Software & Programming sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of 8K Miles Software Services Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services 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 8K Miles Software Services Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.