SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Trisula Textile (Indonesia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Trisula Textile is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, 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 Trisula Textile can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trisula Textile, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Trisula Textile
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trisula Textile
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Indonesia
4. Making a Apparel/Accessories sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Trisula Textile
Strengths of Trisula Textile | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trisula Textile are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Trisula Textile has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories
– Trisula Textile is one of the leading players in the Apparel/Accessories industry in Indonesia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Apparel/Accessories industry in Indonesia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Trisula Textile in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Trisula Textile is one of the most innovative firm in Apparel/Accessories sector.
Analytics focus
– Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Trisula Textile 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.
Training and development
– Trisula Textile has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Apparel/Accessories industry
– Trisula Textile has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trisula Textile to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Apparel/Accessories industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trisula Textile to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Trisula Textile
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Trisula Textile does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Trisula Textile has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trisula Textile to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Trisula Textile emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Trisula Textile comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Apparel/Accessories 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Trisula Textile in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Trisula Textile has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Trisula Textile to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Trisula Textile | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Trisula Textile are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories industry using digital technology.
High dependence on Trisula Textile ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Trisula Textile still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Apparel/Accessories industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Trisula Textile has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Trisula Textile, in the dynamic environment of Apparel/Accessories industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Trisula Textile has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Trisula Textile needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Apparel/Accessories industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Trisula Textile can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Trisula Textile is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Trisula Textile is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Trisula Textile to provide better information regarding Apparel/Accessories products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring in Apparel/Accessories industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Trisula Textile 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Trisula Textile 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Trisula Textile has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Apparel/Accessories industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Indonesia, Trisula Textile needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Trisula Textile strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Trisula Textile is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Trisula Textile vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Trisula Textile Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Trisula Textile are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Trisula Textile can develop new processes and procedures in Apparel/Accessories 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Apparel/Accessories industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Trisula Textile 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. Trisula Textile 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Trisula Textile has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Apparel/Accessories industry. This can help Trisula Textile to build a more holistic ecosystem for Trisula Textile products in the Apparel/Accessories industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trisula Textile has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Apparel/Accessories sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Trisula Textile to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trisula Textile to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile 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
– Trisula Textile can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Apparel/Accessories 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Trisula Textile in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Apparel/Accessories industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Trisula Textile can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Trisula Textile is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Trisula Textile can utilize new technology in the field of Apparel/Accessories industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trisula Textile can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Trisula Textile External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Trisula Textile are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trisula Textile in Apparel/Accessories industry. The Apparel/Accessories 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Trisula Textile 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile prominent markets.
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.
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. Trisula Textile 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.
Increasing wage structure of Trisula Textile
– 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 Trisula Textile.
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 Trisula Textile in the Apparel/Accessories sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Trisula Textile 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 Apparel/Accessories industry and other sectors.
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 Trisula Textile business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Apparel/Accessories industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Trisula Textile can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Trisula Textile needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Apparel/Accessories industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Trisula Textile 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. Trisula Textile can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Apparel/Accessories industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Trisula Textile has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Apparel/Accessories industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Trisula Textile needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Apparel/Accessories 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Trisula Textile Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile 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 Trisula Textile needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.