SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for WFD Unibail Rodamco (Italy)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , WFD Unibail Rodamco is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of WFD Unibail Rodamco
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that WFD Unibail Rodamco can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the WFD Unibail Rodamco, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of WFD Unibail Rodamco
2. Improving business portfolio management of WFD Unibail Rodamco
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a Real Estate Operations sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of WFD Unibail Rodamco
Strengths of WFD Unibail Rodamco | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of WFD Unibail Rodamco are -
Organizational Resilience of WFD Unibail Rodamco
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing WFD Unibail Rodamco does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– WFD Unibail Rodamco has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– WFD Unibail Rodamco is one of the leading players in the Real Estate Operations industry in Italy. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Italy. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– WFD Unibail Rodamco has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 Real Estate Operations
– WFD Unibail Rodamco is one of the leading players in the Real Estate Operations industry in Italy. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Real Estate Operations industry in Italy but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled WFD Unibail Rodamco in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of WFD Unibail Rodamco in Real Estate Operations industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of WFD Unibail Rodamco comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Real Estate Operations 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco in the Services sector have low bargaining power. WFD Unibail Rodamco has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps WFD Unibail Rodamco to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– WFD Unibail Rodamco has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – WFD Unibail Rodamco staying ahead in the Real Estate Operations industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Real Estate Operations industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For WFD Unibail Rodamco digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
High brand equity
– WFD Unibail Rodamco has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled WFD Unibail Rodamco to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at WFD Unibail Rodamco emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of WFD Unibail Rodamco | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of WFD Unibail Rodamco are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, WFD Unibail Rodamco has high operating costs in the Real Estate Operations industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract WFD Unibail Rodamco lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Real Estate Operations industry, WFD Unibail Rodamco needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Skills based hiring in Real Estate Operations industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at WFD Unibail Rodamco 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, WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that WFD Unibail Rodamco needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Real Estate Operations industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at WFD Unibail Rodamco can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as WFD Unibail Rodamco is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on WFD Unibail Rodamco ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of WFD Unibail Rodamco still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Real Estate Operations industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though WFD Unibail Rodamco has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of WFD Unibail Rodamco, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Real Estate Operations 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.
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 WFD Unibail Rodamco supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, WFD Unibail Rodamco is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left WFD Unibail Rodamco vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ less understanding of WFD Unibail Rodamco strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 Real Estate Operations industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As WFD Unibail Rodamco is one of the leading players in the Real Estate Operations industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Real Estate Operations industry in last five years.
WFD Unibail Rodamco Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of WFD Unibail Rodamco are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Real Estate Operations industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for WFD Unibail Rodamco in the Real Estate Operations industry. Now WFD Unibail Rodamco can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, WFD Unibail Rodamco is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. WFD Unibail Rodamco can utilize new technology in the field of Real Estate Operations industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, WFD Unibail Rodamco can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that WFD Unibail Rodamco operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Real Estate Operations sector.
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 WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 Real Estate Operations industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Real Estate Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. WFD Unibail Rodamco 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. WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– WFD Unibail Rodamco can develop new processes and procedures in Real Estate Operations 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.
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. WFD Unibail Rodamco can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects WFD Unibail Rodamco can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats WFD Unibail Rodamco External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of WFD Unibail Rodamco are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 Real Estate Operations industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco in the Real Estate Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– WFD Unibail Rodamco has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Real Estate Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, WFD Unibail Rodamco needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Real Estate Operations 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 Real Estate Operations industry.
Increasing wage structure of WFD Unibail Rodamco
– 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco.
Environmental challenges
– WFD Unibail Rodamco 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. WFD Unibail Rodamco can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Real Estate Operations 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco 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, WFD Unibail Rodamco may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Real Estate Operations 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. WFD Unibail Rodamco 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Real Estate Operations industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. WFD Unibail Rodamco can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of WFD Unibail Rodamco Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco 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 WFD Unibail Rodamco needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.