Sona Topas Tourism (SONA) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Department & Discount)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Sona Topas Tourism (Indonesia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Sona Topas Tourism is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sona Topas Tourism
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Sona Topas Tourism can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sona Topas Tourism, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Sona Topas Tourism
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sona Topas Tourism
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Indonesia
4. Making a Retail (Department & Discount) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sona Topas Tourism
Strengths of Sona Topas Tourism | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sona Topas Tourism are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Sona Topas Tourism comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Department & Discount) 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sona Topas Tourism has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Ability to lead change in Retail (Department & Discount)
– Sona Topas Tourism is one of the leading players in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry in Indonesia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry in Indonesia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Sona Topas Tourism in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sona Topas Tourism has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Department & Discount) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Sona Topas Tourism have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Department & Discount) industry
– Sona Topas Tourism has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sona Topas Tourism to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sona Topas Tourism to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sona Topas Tourism is one of the leading players in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry in Indonesia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Indonesia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry
– Sona Topas Tourism is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sona Topas Tourism in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Sona Topas Tourism has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sona Topas Tourism to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sona Topas Tourism has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Sona Topas Tourism staying ahead in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Sona Topas Tourism 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 Retail (Department & Discount) industry. The technology infrastructure of Indonesia 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.
Weaknesses of Sona Topas Tourism | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sona Topas Tourism are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Indonesia, Sona Topas Tourism needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sona Topas Tourism has some of the most successful models in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Sona Topas Tourism should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sona Topas Tourism products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sona Topas Tourism needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Sona Topas Tourism has high operating costs in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sona Topas Tourism lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sona Topas Tourism 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 Retail (Department & Discount) industry using digital technology.
Employees’ less understanding of Sona Topas Tourism strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Sona Topas Tourism is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sona Topas Tourism vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Sona Topas Tourism ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Sona Topas Tourism still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Department & Discount) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Sona Topas Tourism has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sona Topas Tourism is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry, but Sona Topas Tourism needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sona Topas Tourism to focus more on services in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Department & Discount) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Indonesia, Sona Topas Tourism 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 Retail (Department & Discount) industry.
Sona Topas Tourism Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Sona Topas Tourism are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sona Topas Tourism has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Department & Discount) industry. This can help Sona Topas Tourism to build a more holistic ecosystem for Sona Topas Tourism products in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sona Topas Tourism to increase its market reach. Sona Topas Tourism 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
– Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sona Topas Tourism can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Department & Discount) 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Sona Topas Tourism can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Retail (Department & Discount) sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sona Topas Tourism 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. Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Department & Discount) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sona Topas Tourism can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Sona Topas Tourism External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Sona Topas Tourism are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Department & Discount) industry are lowering. It can presents Sona Topas Tourism with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Department & Discount) sector.
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. Sona Topas Tourism 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sona Topas Tourism in Retail (Department & Discount) industry. The Retail (Department & Discount) 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, Sona Topas Tourism may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Department & Discount) 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.
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 Sona Topas Tourism.
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 Sona Topas Tourism in the Retail (Department & Discount) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Department & Discount) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sona Topas Tourism can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Sona Topas Tourism
– 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 Sona Topas Tourism.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sona Topas Tourism 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.
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. Sona Topas Tourism needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Department & Discount) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sona Topas Tourism has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Department & Discount) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sona Topas Tourism needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Department & Discount) 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sona Topas Tourism 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 Retail (Department & Discount) industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sona Topas Tourism Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism 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 Sona Topas Tourism needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.