BH Whitestone Group (WTS) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for BH Whitestone Group (Israel)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , BH Whitestone Group is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BH Whitestone Group

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that BH Whitestone Group can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the BH Whitestone Group, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which BH Whitestone Group 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of BH Whitestone Group can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of BH Whitestone Group
2. Improving business portfolio management of BH Whitestone Group
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Israel
4. Making a Communications Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of BH Whitestone Group

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Strengths of BH Whitestone Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of BH Whitestone Group are -

Training and development

– BH Whitestone Group has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– BH Whitestone Group is present in almost all the verticals within the Communications Equipment industry. This has provided BH Whitestone Group 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.

Ability to lead change in Communications Equipment

– BH Whitestone Group is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry in Israel. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Communications Equipment industry in Israel but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled BH Whitestone Group in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– BH Whitestone Group has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – BH Whitestone Group staying ahead in the Communications Equipment industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Strong track record of project management in the Communications Equipment industry

– BH Whitestone Group is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of BH Whitestone Group in Communications Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Digital Transformation in Communications Equipment industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For BH Whitestone Group digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. BH Whitestone Group 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communications Equipment industry

– BH Whitestone Group has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled BH Whitestone Group to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communications Equipment industry. The sustainable margins have also helped BH Whitestone Group to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– BH Whitestone Group is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Equipment sector.

Organizational Resilience of BH Whitestone Group

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing BH Whitestone Group does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Analytics focus

– BH Whitestone Group 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 Communications Equipment 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

– BH Whitestone Group is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment 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.

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Weaknesses of BH Whitestone Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of BH Whitestone Group are -

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Israel, BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, BH Whitestone Group is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left BH Whitestone Group vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Products dominated business model

– Even though BH Whitestone Group has some of the most successful models in the Communications Equipment industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. BH Whitestone Group should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As BH Whitestone Group is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Communications Equipment industry in last five years.

High dependence on BH Whitestone Group ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of BH Whitestone Group still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Equipment industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though BH Whitestone Group has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, BH Whitestone Group has high operating costs in the Communications Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract BH Whitestone Group lucrative customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of BH Whitestone Group products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, BH Whitestone Group needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Employees’ less understanding of BH Whitestone Group strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of BH Whitestone Group 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.

Skills based hiring in Communications Equipment industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at BH Whitestone Group 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, BH Whitestone Group is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help BH Whitestone Group to provide better information regarding Communications Equipment products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Need for greater diversity

– BH Whitestone Group 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.

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BH Whitestone Group Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of BH Whitestone Group are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for BH Whitestone Group 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, BH Whitestone Group is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BH Whitestone Group can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Equipment industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at BH Whitestone Group 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 Communications Equipment industry.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of BH Whitestone Group has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Equipment industry. This can help BH Whitestone Group to build a more holistic ecosystem for BH Whitestone Group products in the Communications Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Equipment industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for BH Whitestone Group in the Communications Equipment industry. Now BH Whitestone Group can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for BH Whitestone Group in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communications Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Leveraging digital technologies

– BH Whitestone Group 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– BH Whitestone Group has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Communications Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled BH Whitestone Group to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help BH Whitestone Group to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, BH Whitestone Group can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that BH Whitestone Group operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communications Equipment sector.

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Threats BH Whitestone Group External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of BH Whitestone Group are -

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 BH Whitestone Group.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that BH Whitestone Group is facing in Communications Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for BH Whitestone Group in Communications Equipment industry. The Communications Equipment 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents BH Whitestone Group with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Equipment sector.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– BH Whitestone Group 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on BH Whitestone Group 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 Communications Equipment industry and other sectors.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Communications Equipment industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. BH Whitestone Group can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Environmental challenges

– BH Whitestone Group 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. BH Whitestone Group can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Equipment industry.

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 BH Whitestone Group business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, BH Whitestone Group may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Equipment sector.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group prominent markets.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– BH Whitestone Group 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 Communications Equipment industry.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of BH Whitestone Group Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group 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 BH Whitestone Group needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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