Story-I (SRY) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Technology)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Story-I (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Story-I is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Story-I can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Story-I, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Story-I 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 Story-I can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Story-I
2. Improving business portfolio management of Story-I
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Retail (Technology) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Story-I
Strengths of Story-I | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Story-I are -
High brand equity
– Story-I has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Story-I to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Technology) industry
– Story-I has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Story-I to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Technology) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Story-I to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Technology) industry
– Story-I is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Story-I 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Story-I 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.
Organizational Resilience of Story-I
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Story-I does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Story-I in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Story-I has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Story-I to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Story-I 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Story-I is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Technology) sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Story-I is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Technology) industry. This has provided Story-I 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Story-I has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Story-I 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Story-I has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Story-I staying ahead in the Retail (Technology) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Story-I | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Story-I are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Technology) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Australia, Story-I 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 Retail (Technology) industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Story-I has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Retail (Technology) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Story-I 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Story-I is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Technology) industry, but Story-I needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Story-I to focus more on services in the Retail (Technology) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Story-I ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Story-I still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Technology) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Story-I has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Technology) industry, Story-I 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Story-I has high operating costs in the Retail (Technology) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Story-I lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Story-I has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Retail (Technology) industry over the last five years. Story-I even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Story-I, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Technology) 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Australia, Story-I needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Story-I strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Story-I 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.
Story-I Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Story-I are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Story-I 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 Story-I to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Story-I is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Story-I can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Technology) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Story-I in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Technology) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Story-I 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Story-I 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 Retail (Technology) industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Story-I has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Technology) industry. This can help Story-I to build a more holistic ecosystem for Story-I products in the Retail (Technology) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Story-I can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Retail (Technology) 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Story-I can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Story-I can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Retail (Technology) 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.
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 Story-I 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
– Story-I can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Technology) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Story-I can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Story-I 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.
Threats Story-I External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Story-I are -
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 Story-I in the Retail (Technology) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Story-I 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 Retail (Technology) industry.
Environmental challenges
– Story-I 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. Story-I can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Technology) industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Story-I 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.
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. Story-I needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Technology) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Technology) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Story-I 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, Story-I may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Technology) sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Technology) industry are lowering. It can presents Story-I with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Technology) sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Story-I 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 Story-I prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Story-I
– 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 Story-I.
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 Story-I business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Story-I Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Story-I 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 Story-I 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 Story-I 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 Story-I 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 Story-I needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
