SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Khandwala Securities (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Khandwala Securities is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Khandwala Securities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Khandwala Securities can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Khandwala Securities, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Khandwala Securities
2. Improving business portfolio management of Khandwala Securities
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Investment Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Khandwala Securities
Strengths of Khandwala Securities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Khandwala Securities are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Khandwala Securities is present in almost all the verticals within the Investment Services industry. This has provided Khandwala Securities 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Khandwala Securities is one of the leading players in the Investment Services 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Investment Services industry
– Khandwala Securities has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Khandwala Securities to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Investment Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Khandwala Securities to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Khandwala Securities has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Khandwala Securities to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Khandwala Securities has one of the best training and development program in Financial 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Khandwala Securities is one of the most innovative firm in Investment Services sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Investment Services industry
– Khandwala Securities is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Khandwala Securities has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Khandwala Securities 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Khandwala Securities has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Khandwala Securities staying ahead in the Investment Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Khandwala Securities 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Khandwala Securities in Investment Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Khandwala Securities emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Khandwala Securities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Khandwala Securities are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Khandwala Securities products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Khandwala Securities needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in Investment Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Khandwala Securities 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, Khandwala Securities needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Khandwala Securities 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Khandwala Securities is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Investment Services industry, but Khandwala Securities needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Khandwala Securities to focus more on services in the Investment Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Khandwala Securities needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Investment Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Khandwala Securities can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Khandwala Securities is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Khandwala Securities is one of the leading players in the Investment Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Investment Services industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Khandwala Securities has some of the most successful models in the Investment Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Khandwala Securities should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Khandwala Securities ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Khandwala Securities still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Investment Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Khandwala Securities has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Khandwala Securities has high operating costs in the Investment Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Khandwala Securities lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Khandwala Securities is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Khandwala Securities to provide better information regarding Investment Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Khandwala Securities Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Khandwala Securities are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Khandwala Securities can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Khandwala Securities operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Investment Services sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Khandwala Securities 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Khandwala Securities 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Investment Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Khandwala Securities can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Investment Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Khandwala Securities in the Investment Services industry. Now Khandwala Securities can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Khandwala Securities can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Khandwala Securities is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Khandwala Securities can utilize new technology in the field of Investment Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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 Khandwala Securities 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
– Khandwala Securities has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Investment Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Khandwala Securities to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Khandwala Securities to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Khandwala Securities 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 Investment Services industry.
Developing new processes and practices
– Khandwala Securities can develop new processes and procedures in Investment Services 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Khandwala Securities 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.
Threats Khandwala Securities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Khandwala Securities are -
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 Khandwala Securities business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Khandwala Securities has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Investment Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Khandwala Securities needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Investment Services 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 Khandwala Securities.
Increasing wage structure of Khandwala Securities
– 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 Khandwala Securities.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Investment Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Khandwala Securities can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Khandwala Securities 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 Investment Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities prominent markets.
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 Khandwala Securities in the Investment Services sector and impact the bottomline 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 Khandwala Securities in Investment Services industry. The Investment Services 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Investment Services industry are lowering. It can presents Khandwala Securities with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Investment Services sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Khandwala Securities may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Investment Services sector.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Khandwala Securities 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. Khandwala Securities can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Investment Services industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Khandwala Securities Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities 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 Khandwala Securities needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.