SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Carnegie Clean (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Carnegie Clean is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Carnegie Clean can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carnegie Clean, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Carnegie Clean
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carnegie Clean
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Waste Management Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Carnegie Clean
Strengths of Carnegie Clean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carnegie Clean are -
Ability to lead change in Waste Management Services
– Carnegie Clean is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry in Australia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Waste Management Services industry in Australia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Carnegie Clean in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Carnegie Clean is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry in Australia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Australia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Carnegie Clean is present in almost all the verticals within the Waste Management Services industry. This has provided Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry
– Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry
– Carnegie Clean has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Carnegie Clean to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Waste Management Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Carnegie Clean to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Carnegie Clean 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Carnegie Clean in Waste Management Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Carnegie Clean is one of the most innovative firm in Waste Management Services sector.
Analytics focus
– Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry. The technology infrastructure of Australia 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Carnegie Clean in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Carnegie Clean has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carnegie Clean to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carnegie Clean 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
– Carnegie Clean has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Waste Management Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Carnegie Clean have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Carnegie Clean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Carnegie Clean are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Carnegie Clean has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Waste Management Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Carnegie Clean is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Waste Management Services industry, but Carnegie Clean needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carnegie Clean to focus more on services in the Waste Management Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Waste Management Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Carnegie Clean 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Carnegie Clean has high operating costs in the Waste Management Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Carnegie Clean lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Carnegie Clean strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Carnegie Clean 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Carnegie Clean is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Carnegie Clean to provide better information regarding Waste Management Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Carnegie Clean 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Carnegie Clean is just above the Waste Management Services industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Carnegie Clean needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Waste Management Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Carnegie Clean can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carnegie Clean is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Carnegie Clean, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Waste Management Services industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry using digital technology.
Carnegie Clean Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Carnegie Clean are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carnegie Clean can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Waste Management Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Carnegie Clean in the Waste Management Services industry. Now Carnegie Clean can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Carnegie Clean 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Waste Management Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Carnegie Clean can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Carnegie Clean can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Waste Management Services 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Carnegie Clean can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Carnegie Clean has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Waste Management Services industry. This can help Carnegie Clean to build a more holistic ecosystem for Carnegie Clean products in the Waste Management Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Carnegie Clean 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Carnegie Clean 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Carnegie Clean has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Waste Management Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Carnegie Clean to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Carnegie Clean to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Carnegie Clean External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Carnegie Clean are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Waste Management Services industry are lowering. It can presents Carnegie Clean with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Waste Management Services sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Waste Management Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Carnegie Clean can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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
– Carnegie Clean 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. Carnegie Clean can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Waste Management Services industry.
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 Carnegie Clean.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carnegie Clean is facing in Waste Management Services 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. Carnegie Clean 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Carnegie Clean 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.
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 Carnegie Clean in the Waste Management Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Carnegie Clean needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Waste Management Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Carnegie Clean may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Waste Management Services sector.
Increasing wage structure of Carnegie Clean
– 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 Carnegie Clean.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carnegie Clean 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Carnegie Clean Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean 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 Carnegie Clean needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.