SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shreyas Shipping Logistics (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shreyas Shipping Logistics is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shreyas Shipping Logistics can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shreyas Shipping Logistics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
Strengths of Shreyas Shipping Logistics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shreyas Shipping Logistics are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Shreyas Shipping Logistics in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Shreyas Shipping Logistics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Shreyas Shipping Logistics to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Water Transportation
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Water Transportation industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shreyas Shipping Logistics in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Shreyas Shipping Logistics emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation 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.
Organizational Resilience of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Shreyas Shipping Logistics does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Water Transportation 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.
High brand equity
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shreyas Shipping Logistics to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics is one of the most innovative firm in Water Transportation sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shreyas Shipping Logistics in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Water Transportation industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Shreyas Shipping Logistics digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Weaknesses of Shreyas Shipping Logistics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shreyas Shipping Logistics are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Shreyas Shipping Logistics has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Shreyas Shipping Logistics has high operating costs in the Water Transportation industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Shreyas Shipping Logistics lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Shreyas Shipping Logistics has some of the most successful models in the Water Transportation industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Shreyas Shipping Logistics should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Shreyas Shipping Logistics needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Water Transportation industry, Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Shreyas Shipping Logistics needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Water Transportation industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Shreyas Shipping Logistics can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Shreyas Shipping Logistics is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Shreyas Shipping Logistics is just above the Water Transportation 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Shreyas Shipping Logistics is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Water Transportation industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Shreyas Shipping Logistics Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shreyas Shipping Logistics are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Water Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shreyas Shipping Logistics to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shreyas Shipping Logistics to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Water Transportation sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Shreyas Shipping Logistics can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Shreyas Shipping Logistics can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Shreyas Shipping Logistics operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Water Transportation 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Water Transportation industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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. Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Shreyas Shipping Logistics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Transportation industry. This can help Shreyas Shipping Logistics to build a more holistic ecosystem for Shreyas Shipping Logistics products in the Water Transportation 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, Shreyas Shipping Logistics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shreyas Shipping Logistics can utilize new technology in the field of Water Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Shreyas Shipping Logistics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shreyas Shipping Logistics are -
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.
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. Shreyas Shipping Logistics needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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. Shreyas Shipping Logistics can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shreyas Shipping Logistics can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Shreyas Shipping Logistics is facing in Water Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Water Transportation industry and other sectors.
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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Water Transportation industry.
Increasing wage structure of Shreyas Shipping Logistics
– 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Shreyas Shipping Logistics in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Water Transportation industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shreyas Shipping Logistics Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics 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 Shreyas Shipping Logistics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.