SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for ShreeOswal Seeds (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , ShreeOswal Seeds is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that ShreeOswal Seeds can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the ShreeOswal Seeds, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of ShreeOswal Seeds
2. Improving business portfolio management of ShreeOswal Seeds
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of ShreeOswal Seeds
Strengths of ShreeOswal Seeds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of ShreeOswal Seeds are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– ShreeOswal Seeds has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– ShreeOswal Seeds has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of ShreeOswal Seeds have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of ShreeOswal Seeds in the sector have low bargaining power. ShreeOswal Seeds has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps ShreeOswal Seeds to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– ShreeOswal Seeds has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – ShreeOswal Seeds staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– ShreeOswal Seeds has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled ShreeOswal Seeds to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– ShreeOswal Seeds is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– ShreeOswal Seeds is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of ShreeOswal Seeds comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at ShreeOswal Seeds emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of ShreeOswal Seeds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ShreeOswal Seeds are -
High dependence on ShreeOswal Seeds ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of ShreeOswal Seeds still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though ShreeOswal Seeds has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, ShreeOswal Seeds has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, ShreeOswal Seeds is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help ShreeOswal Seeds to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, ShreeOswal Seeds has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract ShreeOswal Seeds lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of ShreeOswal Seeds is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but ShreeOswal Seeds needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help ShreeOswal Seeds to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, ShreeOswal Seeds needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at ShreeOswal Seeds, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. ShreeOswal Seeds has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though ShreeOswal Seeds has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. ShreeOswal Seeds should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of ShreeOswal Seeds strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
ShreeOswal Seeds Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of ShreeOswal Seeds are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. ShreeOswal Seeds can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. ShreeOswal Seeds 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. ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the 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 ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds to increase its market reach. ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Loyalty marketing
– ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds 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
– ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– ShreeOswal Seeds has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled ShreeOswal Seeds to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help ShreeOswal Seeds to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, ShreeOswal Seeds is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ShreeOswal Seeds can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. ShreeOswal Seeds can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats ShreeOswal Seeds External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of ShreeOswal Seeds are -
Environmental challenges
– ShreeOswal Seeds 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. ShreeOswal Seeds can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents ShreeOswal Seeds with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– ShreeOswal Seeds has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, ShreeOswal Seeds needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Increasing wage structure of ShreeOswal Seeds
– 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 ShreeOswal Seeds.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for ShreeOswal Seeds in industry. The 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, ShreeOswal Seeds may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on ShreeOswal Seeds 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 industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– ShreeOswal Seeds 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 industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. ShreeOswal Seeds 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.
Regulatory challenges
– ShreeOswal Seeds 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 industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that ShreeOswal Seeds is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ShreeOswal Seeds Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds 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 ShreeOswal Seeds needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
