SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Harrisons Malayalam Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
Strengths of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Crops
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Crops industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Harrisons Malayalam Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Harrisons Malayalam Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Harrisons Malayalam Ltd staying ahead in the Crops industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Crops industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harrisons Malayalam Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harrisons Malayalam Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Crops 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Weaknesses of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd are -
High dependence on Harrisons Malayalam Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Crops industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Crops industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Crops 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is just above the Crops 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but Harrisons Malayalam Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Harrisons Malayalam Ltd to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is one of the leading players in the Crops industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Crops industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Harrisons Malayalam Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Crops industry using digital technology.
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Crops industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Harrisons Malayalam 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. Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Crops 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Harrisons Malayalam Ltd in the Crops industry. Now Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Harrisons Malayalam Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Harrisons Malayalam Ltd in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Crops industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Harrisons Malayalam 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Harrisons Malayalam 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 Crops industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Crops industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Crops industry. This can help Harrisons Malayalam Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Harrisons Malayalam Ltd products in the Crops industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Harrisons Malayalam Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd are -
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Harrisons Malayalam 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 Crops sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Harrisons Malayalam Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Crops industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Harrisons Malayalam 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. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Harrisons Malayalam 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 Crops industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Harrisons Malayalam 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harrisons Malayalam Ltd in Crops industry. The Crops 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam 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 Harrisons Malayalam Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.