Atlantia (ATL) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Atlantia (Italy)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Atlantia is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Atlantia

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Atlantia can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Atlantia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Atlantia 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 Atlantia can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Atlantia
2. Improving business portfolio management of Atlantia
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a Misc. Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Atlantia

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Strengths of Atlantia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Atlantia are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– Atlantia has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Transportation industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Atlantia have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Atlantia has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Atlantia in Misc. Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Training and development

– Atlantia has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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

– Atlantia is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Transportation industry. This has provided Atlantia 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Atlantia in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Atlantia has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Atlantia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Misc. Transportation

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

High brand equity

– Atlantia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Atlantia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Atlantia has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Atlantia 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Transportation industry

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

Digital Transformation in Misc. Transportation industry

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

Learning organization

- Atlantia 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 Atlantia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Atlantia emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

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Weaknesses of Atlantia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Atlantia are -

Skills based hiring in Misc. Transportation industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Atlantia 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Atlantia needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Transportation industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Atlantia can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Atlantia is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Atlantia, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Transportation industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Atlantia has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Need for greater diversity

– Atlantia 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

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

Slow to harness new channels of communication

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

High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Transportation industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, Atlantia 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 Misc. Transportation industry.

Low market penetration in new markets

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

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Atlantia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Transportation industry, but Atlantia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Atlantia to focus more on services in the Misc. Transportation industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Transportation industry, Atlantia 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.

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Atlantia Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Atlantia are -

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. Atlantia can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Loyalty marketing

– Atlantia 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Atlantia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Creating value in data economy

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

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Atlantia 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Atlantia to increase its market reach. Atlantia will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Atlantia 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 Misc. Transportation industry.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Transportation industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Atlantia in the Misc. Transportation industry. Now Atlantia 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, Atlantia is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Atlantia can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Buying journey improvements

– Atlantia can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Transportation 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Misc. Transportation industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Atlantia 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. Atlantia 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

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

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Threats Atlantia External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Atlantia are -

Regulatory challenges

– Atlantia 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 Misc. Transportation industry regulations.

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. Atlantia 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.

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Atlantia 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.

Learning curve for new practices

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

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Atlantia in Misc. Transportation industry. The Misc. Transportation 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.

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 Atlantia business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Atlantia 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 Misc. Transportation industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Atlantia 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 Misc. Transportation industry and other sectors.

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. Atlantia needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Environmental challenges

– Atlantia 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. Atlantia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Transportation industry.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Atlantia is facing in Misc. Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Atlantia.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atlantia Template, Example

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

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