Giorgio Fedon & Figli (FDOP) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Giorgio Fedon & Figli (Italy)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Giorgio Fedon & Figli is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Giorgio Fedon & Figli can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Giorgio Fedon & Figli, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
2. Improving business portfolio management of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
Strengths of Giorgio Fedon & Figli | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Giorgio Fedon & Figli are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 lead change in
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli is one of the leading players in the industry in Italy. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in Italy but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Giorgio Fedon & Figli in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Giorgio Fedon & Figli does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Giorgio Fedon & Figli in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Giorgio Fedon & Figli emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Giorgio Fedon & Figli to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Giorgio Fedon & Figli have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Giorgio Fedon & Figli staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure of Italy is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Giorgio Fedon & Figli in the sector have low bargaining power. Giorgio Fedon & Figli has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Giorgio Fedon & Figli to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Giorgio Fedon & Figli | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Giorgio Fedon & Figli are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Giorgio Fedon & Figli has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Giorgio Fedon & Figli should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Giorgio Fedon & Figli is just above the industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Giorgio Fedon & Figli is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Giorgio Fedon & Figli to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Giorgio Fedon & Figli strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Giorgio Fedon & Figli, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Giorgio Fedon & Figli, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Giorgio Fedon & Figli has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Italy, Giorgio Fedon & Figli needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Giorgio Fedon & Figli has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Giorgio Fedon & Figli is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Giorgio Fedon & Figli needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Giorgio Fedon & Figli to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Giorgio Fedon & Figli products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Giorgio Fedon & Figli needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Giorgio Fedon & Figli Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Giorgio Fedon & Figli are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Giorgio Fedon & Figli in the industry. Now Giorgio Fedon & Figli can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Giorgio Fedon & Figli to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Giorgio Fedon & Figli to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Giorgio Fedon & Figli has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Giorgio Fedon & Figli to build a more holistic ecosystem for Giorgio Fedon & Figli products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Giorgio Fedon & Figli can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Giorgio Fedon & Figli can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Giorgio Fedon & Figli operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Giorgio Fedon & Figli is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Giorgio Fedon & Figli can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Threats Giorgio Fedon & Figli External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Giorgio Fedon & Figli are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Giorgio Fedon & Figli needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 industry and other sectors.
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
– Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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. Giorgio Fedon & Figli can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Giorgio Fedon & Figli may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Giorgio Fedon & Figli can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Giorgio Fedon & Figli is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli prominent markets.
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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Giorgio Fedon & Figli
– 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Giorgio Fedon & Figli Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli 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 Giorgio Fedon & Figli needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.