Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Jewelry & Silverware sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd
Strengths of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Analytics focus
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd staying ahead in the Jewelry & Silverware industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Jewelry & Silverware industry. This has provided Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Learning organization
- Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Jewelry & Silverware sector.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Jewelry & Silverware 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.
Organizational Resilience of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Jewelry & Silverware industry
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Jewelry & Silverware industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Jewelry & Silverware industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has high operating costs in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd 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.
Skills based hiring in Jewelry & Silverware industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Jewelry & Silverware industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is one of the leading players in the Jewelry & Silverware industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Jewelry & Silverware industry in last five years.
High dependence on Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Jewelry & Silverware industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Jewelry & Silverware industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd are -
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 Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Jewelry & Silverware sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
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. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Jewelry & Silverware 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. Now Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Jewelry & Silverware industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Jewelry & Silverware 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Jewelry & Silverware industry. This can help Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd products in the Jewelry & Silverware industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Jewelry & Silverware industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
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. Zodiac JRD MKJ 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.
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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd in the Jewelry & Silverware sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd is facing in Jewelry & Silverware sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry.
Environmental challenges
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Jewelry & Silverware industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Jewelry & Silverware sector.
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. Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Jewelry & Silverware industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ 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 Zodiac JRD MKJ Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
