SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Viceroy Hotels Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Viceroy Hotels Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Viceroy Hotels Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Viceroy Hotels Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Viceroy Hotels Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Viceroy Hotels 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 Viceroy Hotels Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Viceroy Hotels Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Viceroy Hotels Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Hotels & Motels sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Viceroy Hotels Ltd
Strengths of Viceroy Hotels Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Viceroy Hotels Ltd are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Viceroy Hotels Ltd in Hotels & Motels industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Hotels & Motels
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry in India. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Hotels & Motels industry in India but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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 Viceroy Hotels 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Viceroy Hotels Ltd in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Viceroy Hotels Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Viceroy Hotels Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Viceroy Hotels Ltd is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Viceroy Hotels Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Viceroy Hotels Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels 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 Viceroy Hotels 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Viceroy Hotels Ltd has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Hotels & Motels industry
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Viceroy Hotels Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Hotels & Motels industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Viceroy Hotels Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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 Hotels & Motels 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Hotels & Motels industry
– Viceroy Hotels 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Hotels & Motels sector.
Weaknesses of Viceroy Hotels Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Viceroy Hotels Ltd are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Viceroy Hotels Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Hotels & Motels industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Viceroy Hotels Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Viceroy Hotels Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Viceroy Hotels Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Viceroy Hotels Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Hotels & Motels industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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 Viceroy Hotels Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Viceroy Hotels Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Viceroy Hotels Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Viceroy Hotels 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Viceroy Hotels Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Hotels & Motels industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Viceroy Hotels Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Hotels & Motels industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Viceroy Hotels Ltd is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Hotels & Motels industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Viceroy Hotels 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 Hotels & Motels industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring in Hotels & Motels industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Viceroy Hotels Ltd has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Viceroy Hotels Ltd has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Hotels & Motels industry over the last five years. Viceroy Hotels Ltd even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Viceroy Hotels Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Hotels & Motels industry, but Viceroy Hotels Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Viceroy Hotels Ltd to focus more on services in the Hotels & Motels industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Viceroy Hotels Ltd has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Hotels & Motels industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Viceroy Hotels Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Viceroy Hotels Ltd are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Viceroy Hotels 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Viceroy Hotels Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Hotels & Motels industry. This can help Viceroy Hotels Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Viceroy Hotels Ltd products in the Hotels & Motels industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Viceroy Hotels Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Viceroy Hotels 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Viceroy Hotels Ltd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Viceroy Hotels 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 Hotels & Motels industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Viceroy Hotels 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, Viceroy Hotels Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Viceroy Hotels Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Hotels & Motels sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Hotels & Motels 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 Hotels & Motels industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Viceroy Hotels 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. Viceroy Hotels 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Viceroy Hotels 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 Hotels & Motels industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Viceroy Hotels Ltd can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats Viceroy Hotels Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Viceroy Hotels Ltd are -
Regulatory challenges
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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 Hotels & Motels industry regulations.
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 Viceroy Hotels Ltd.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Viceroy Hotels 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 Hotels & Motels industry and other sectors.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Viceroy Hotels Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Hotels & Motels industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Hotels & Motels industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Viceroy Hotels Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Viceroy Hotels Ltd in Hotels & Motels industry. The Hotels & Motels 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.
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 Viceroy Hotels Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Viceroy Hotels Ltd is facing in Hotels & Motels sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Hotels & Motels industry are lowering. It can presents Viceroy Hotels Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Hotels & Motels sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Hotels & Motels industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Viceroy Hotels Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Hotels & Motels 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Viceroy Hotels Ltd 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 Hotels & Motels industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Viceroy Hotels 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 Hotels & Motels sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Viceroy Hotels Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Viceroy Hotels 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 Viceroy Hotels 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 Viceroy Hotels 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 Viceroy Hotels 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 Viceroy Hotels Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.