SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Citrus Plt1-L (Israel)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Citrus Plt1-L is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Citrus Plt1-L can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Citrus Plt1-L, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Citrus Plt1-L
2. Improving business portfolio management of Citrus Plt1-L
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Israel
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Citrus Plt1-L
Strengths of Citrus Plt1-L | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Citrus Plt1-L are -
Training and development
– Citrus Plt1-L has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-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.
Analytics focus
– Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry. The technology infrastructure of Israel 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Citrus Plt1-L is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in Israel. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Israel. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Citrus Plt1-L is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Learning organization
- Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Citrus Plt1-L emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Citrus Plt1-L in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Citrus Plt1-L has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Citrus Plt1-L to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Citrus Plt1-L
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Citrus Plt1-L does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Citrus Plt1-L is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Citrus Plt1-L in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– Citrus Plt1-L is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Citrus Plt1-L digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Citrus Plt1-L has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses of Citrus Plt1-L | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Citrus Plt1-L are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Israel, Citrus Plt1-L needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Citrus Plt1-L supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Citrus Plt1-L is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Citrus Plt1-L vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Citrus Plt1-L is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Citrus Plt1-L to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Citrus Plt1-L strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Citrus Plt1-L needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Citrus Plt1-L can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Citrus Plt1-L is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring in Crops industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Citrus Plt1-L 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Citrus Plt1-L, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Crops 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, Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Crops industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Israel, Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Citrus Plt1-L is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but Citrus Plt1-L needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Citrus Plt1-L to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Citrus Plt1-L Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Citrus Plt1-L are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Citrus Plt1-L has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Crops sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Citrus Plt1-L to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Citrus Plt1-L 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, Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L 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
– Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Citrus Plt1-L can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Crops 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Citrus Plt1-L in the Crops industry. Now Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Citrus Plt1-L has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Crops industry. This can help Citrus Plt1-L to build a more holistic ecosystem for Citrus Plt1-L products in the Crops industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Citrus Plt1-L can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Citrus Plt1-L can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Citrus Plt1-L 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry.
Developing new processes and practices
– Citrus Plt1-L can develop new processes and procedures in Crops 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.
Threats Citrus Plt1-L External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Citrus Plt1-L are -
Regulatory challenges
– Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry regulations.
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. Citrus Plt1-L needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Citrus Plt1-L
– 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 Citrus Plt1-L.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Citrus Plt1-L is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Citrus Plt1-L with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Crops industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Citrus Plt1-L can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Citrus Plt1-L has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Citrus Plt1-L needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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 Citrus Plt1-L.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Citrus Plt1-L 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 Crops industry and other sectors.
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 Citrus Plt1-L in the Crops sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Citrus Plt1-L 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Citrus Plt1-L Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L 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 Citrus Plt1-L needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.