SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for iCandy Interactive (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , iCandy Interactive is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of iCandy Interactive
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that iCandy Interactive can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the iCandy Interactive, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of iCandy Interactive
2. Improving business portfolio management of iCandy Interactive
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Software & Programming sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of iCandy Interactive
Strengths of iCandy Interactive | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of iCandy Interactive are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of iCandy Interactive 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.
Learning organization
- iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at iCandy Interactive emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of iCandy Interactive in Software & Programming industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– iCandy Interactive 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 Software & Programming industry. The technology infrastructure of Australia 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Software & Programming industry
– iCandy Interactive has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled iCandy Interactive to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Software & Programming industry. The sustainable margins have also helped iCandy Interactive to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that iCandy Interactive 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.
High brand equity
– iCandy Interactive has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled iCandy Interactive to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the iCandy Interactive 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– iCandy Interactive has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – iCandy Interactive 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.
Training and development
– iCandy Interactive has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– iCandy Interactive is present in almost all the verticals within the Software & Programming industry. This has provided iCandy Interactive 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– iCandy Interactive has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. iCandy Interactive 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.
Weaknesses of iCandy Interactive | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of iCandy Interactive are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as iCandy Interactive is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Software & Programming industry, iCandy Interactive 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of iCandy Interactive products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, iCandy Interactive needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, iCandy Interactive 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, iCandy Interactive has high operating costs in the Software & Programming industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract iCandy Interactive lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, iCandy Interactive is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help iCandy Interactive to provide better information regarding Software & Programming products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of iCandy Interactive strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of iCandy Interactive 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 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 iCandy Interactive supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, iCandy Interactive is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left iCandy Interactive vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, iCandy Interactive 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 Software & Programming industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though iCandy Interactive 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. iCandy Interactive should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Software & Programming industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at iCandy Interactive 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.
iCandy Interactive Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of iCandy Interactive are -
Buying journey improvements
– iCandy Interactive 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at iCandy Interactive 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help iCandy Interactive to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– iCandy Interactive 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for iCandy Interactive in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Software & Programming industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive 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.
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 iCandy Interactive 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help iCandy Interactive to increase its market reach. iCandy Interactive 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– iCandy Interactive 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of iCandy Interactive has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Software & Programming industry. This can help iCandy Interactive to build a more holistic ecosystem for iCandy Interactive products in the Software & Programming industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats iCandy Interactive External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of iCandy Interactive are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that iCandy Interactive is facing in Software & Programming sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. iCandy Interactive can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
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. iCandy Interactive 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, iCandy Interactive may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Software & Programming sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– iCandy Interactive 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– iCandy Interactive has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Software & Programming industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive in the Software & Programming sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Software & Programming industry are lowering. It can presents iCandy Interactive with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Software & Programming sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– iCandy Interactive 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 Software & Programming industry.
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. iCandy Interactive needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Software & Programming industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of iCandy Interactive Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive 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 iCandy Interactive needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.