Poligrafica S Faustino (PSF) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Poligrafica S Faustino (Italy)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Poligrafica S Faustino is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Poligrafica S Faustino

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

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Strengths of Poligrafica S Faustino | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Poligrafica S Faustino are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Poligrafica S Faustino in Office Supplies industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Innovation driven organization

– Poligrafica S Faustino is one of the most innovative firm in Office Supplies sector.

Diverse revenue streams

– Poligrafica S Faustino is present in almost all the verticals within the Office Supplies industry. This has provided Poligrafica S Faustino 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 recruit top talent

– Poligrafica S Faustino is one of the leading players in the Office Supplies 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.

Digital Transformation in Office Supplies industry

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

Strong track record of project management in the Office Supplies industry

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Successful track record of launching new products

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

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

Learning organization

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

Training and development

– Poligrafica S Faustino has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Ability to lead change in Office Supplies

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

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Weaknesses of Poligrafica S Faustino | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Poligrafica S Faustino are -

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Office Supplies industry, Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Office Supplies industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, Poligrafica S Faustino 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 Office Supplies industry.

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

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Aligning sales with marketing

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

Need for greater diversity

– Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

Employees’ less understanding of Poligrafica S Faustino strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

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

Products dominated business model

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

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Poligrafica S Faustino has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Office Supplies industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

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Poligrafica S Faustino Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Poligrafica S Faustino are -

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Poligrafica S Faustino 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 Office Supplies industry.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Poligrafica S Faustino 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

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

Manufacturing automation

– Poligrafica S Faustino can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Office Supplies sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Office Supplies industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Poligrafica S Faustino in the Office Supplies industry. Now Poligrafica S Faustino can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Creating value in data economy

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

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 Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Poligrafica S Faustino can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Poligrafica S Faustino operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Office Supplies sector.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Office Supplies industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Poligrafica S Faustino 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. Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Poligrafica S Faustino in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Office Supplies industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Poligrafica S Faustino 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.

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Threats Poligrafica S Faustino External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Poligrafica S Faustino 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 Poligrafica S Faustino.

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 Poligrafica S Faustino business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Easy access to finance

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

Learning curve for new practices

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

Increasing wage structure of Poligrafica S Faustino

– 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 Poligrafica S Faustino.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Poligrafica S Faustino 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 Office Supplies industry and other sectors.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Office Supplies industry are lowering. It can presents Poligrafica S Faustino with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Office Supplies sector.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Poligrafica S Faustino in Office Supplies industry. The Office Supplies 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Poligrafica S Faustino 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 Office Supplies 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.

Environmental challenges

– Poligrafica S Faustino 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. Poligrafica S Faustino can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Office Supplies industry.

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. Poligrafica S Faustino needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Office Supplies industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Poligrafica S Faustino Template, Example

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

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