I Grandi Viaggi (IGV) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for I Grandi Viaggi (Italy)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , I Grandi Viaggi is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of I Grandi Viaggi

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

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Strengths of I Grandi Viaggi | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of I Grandi Viaggi are -

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Highly skilled collaborators

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

High brand equity

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

Learning organization

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

Training and development

– I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Ability to lead change in Hotels & Motels

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

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of I Grandi Viaggi comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Hotels & Motels 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the I Grandi Viaggi are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– I Grandi Viaggi is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of I Grandi Viaggi in Hotels & Motels industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

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Weaknesses of I Grandi Viaggi | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of I Grandi Viaggi are -

Lack of clear differentiation of I Grandi Viaggi products

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

Ability to respond to the competition

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

High bargaining power of channel partners in Hotels & Motels industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, I Grandi Viaggi 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 Hotels & Motels industry.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, I Grandi Viaggi 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 Hotels & Motels industry using digital technology.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Italy, I Grandi Viaggi needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Employees’ less understanding of I Grandi Viaggi strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of I Grandi Viaggi 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 I Grandi Viaggi needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Hotels & Motels industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at I Grandi Viaggi can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as I Grandi Viaggi is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on I Grandi Viaggi ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of I Grandi Viaggi still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Hotels & Motels industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though I Grandi Viaggi has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Products dominated business model

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

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 I Grandi Viaggi supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, I Grandi Viaggi is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left I Grandi Viaggi vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

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I Grandi Viaggi Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of I Grandi Viaggi 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. I Grandi Viaggi can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, I Grandi Viaggi is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. I Grandi Viaggi can utilize new technology in the field of Hotels & Motels industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Loyalty marketing

– I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for I Grandi Viaggi in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Hotels & Motels industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

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

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Hotels & Motels industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for I Grandi Viaggi in the Hotels & Motels industry. Now I Grandi Viaggi 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 I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help I Grandi Viaggi to increase its market reach. I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Hotels & Motels industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. I Grandi Viaggi can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Leveraging digital technologies

– I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Hotels & Motels industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. I Grandi Viaggi 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. I Grandi Viaggi 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.

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Threats I Grandi Viaggi External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of I Grandi Viaggi are -

Consumer confidence and its impact on I Grandi Viaggi 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 Hotels & Motels industry and other sectors.

Learning curve for new practices

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

Easy access to finance

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

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– I Grandi Viaggi 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 Hotels & Motels industry.

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

– I Grandi Viaggi 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for I Grandi Viaggi in Hotels & Motels industry. The Hotels & Motels 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.

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 I Grandi Viaggi in the Hotels & Motels sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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. I Grandi Viaggi needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Hotels & Motels industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Hotels & Motels industry are lowering. It can presents I Grandi Viaggi with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Hotels & Motels sector.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that I Grandi Viaggi is facing in Hotels & Motels 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 I Grandi Viaggi.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, I Grandi Viaggi 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 I Grandi Viaggi prominent markets.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of I Grandi Viaggi Template, Example

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

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