Pil Italica Lifestyle (PILI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Furniture & Fixtures
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Pil Italica Lifestyle (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Pil Italica Lifestyle is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pil Italica Lifestyle
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Pil Italica Lifestyle can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pil Italica Lifestyle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Pil Italica Lifestyle
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pil Italica Lifestyle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Furniture & Fixtures sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pil Italica Lifestyle
Strengths of Pil Italica Lifestyle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pil Italica Lifestyle are -
High brand equity
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pil Italica Lifestyle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Furniture & Fixtures industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Pil Italica Lifestyle have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pil Italica Lifestyle in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Pil Italica Lifestyle has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pil Italica Lifestyle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Furniture & Fixtures
– Pil Italica Lifestyle is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Pil Italica Lifestyle in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pil Italica Lifestyle in Furniture & Fixtures industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pil Italica Lifestyle is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle 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
– Pil Italica Lifestyle is present in almost all the verticals within the Furniture & Fixtures industry. This has provided Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Training and development
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Digital Transformation in Furniture & Fixtures industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pil Italica Lifestyle digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Weaknesses of Pil Italica Lifestyle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pil Italica Lifestyle are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Pil Italica Lifestyle is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Pil Italica Lifestyle, in the dynamic environment of Furniture & Fixtures industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pil Italica Lifestyle has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Furniture & Fixtures industry, Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Pil Italica Lifestyle strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
High dependence on Pil Italica Lifestyle ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Pil Italica Lifestyle still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Furniture & Fixtures industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Pil Italica Lifestyle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Pil Italica Lifestyle supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Pil Italica Lifestyle is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pil Italica Lifestyle vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Pil Italica Lifestyle is just above the Furniture & Fixtures 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Pil Italica Lifestyle needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Pil Italica Lifestyle has high operating costs in the Furniture & Fixtures industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Pil Italica Lifestyle lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Pil Italica Lifestyle, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Furniture & Fixtures 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Pil Italica Lifestyle needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Furniture & Fixtures industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Pil Italica Lifestyle can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pil Italica Lifestyle is planning to shift buying processes online.
Pil Italica Lifestyle Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Pil Italica Lifestyle are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Furniture & Fixtures sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Pil Italica Lifestyle to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pil Italica Lifestyle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pil Italica Lifestyle is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Pil Italica Lifestyle can utilize new technology in the field of Furniture & Fixtures industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pil Italica Lifestyle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Furniture & Fixtures industry. This can help Pil Italica Lifestyle to build a more holistic ecosystem for Pil Italica Lifestyle products in the Furniture & Fixtures industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pil Italica Lifestyle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pil Italica Lifestyle to increase its market reach. Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pil Italica Lifestyle can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Furniture & Fixtures 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Pil Italica Lifestyle in the Furniture & Fixtures industry. Now Pil Italica Lifestyle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Pil Italica Lifestyle External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Pil Italica Lifestyle are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Furniture & Fixtures industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pil Italica Lifestyle can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Pil Italica Lifestyle 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. Pil Italica Lifestyle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Furniture & Fixtures industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pil Italica Lifestyle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Furniture & Fixtures industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pil Italica Lifestyle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Furniture & Fixtures 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.
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 Pil Italica Lifestyle.
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. Pil Italica Lifestyle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Furniture & Fixtures industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Pil Italica Lifestyle
– 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle.
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 Pil Italica Lifestyle in the Furniture & Fixtures sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Furniture & Fixtures industry are lowering. It can presents Pil Italica Lifestyle with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Furniture & Fixtures sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Pil Italica Lifestyle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Furniture & Fixtures sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle prominent markets.
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. Pil Italica Lifestyle 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Pil Italica Lifestyle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pil Italica Lifestyle Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle 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 Pil Italica Lifestyle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.