Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
Strengths of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Business Services 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.
Analytics focus
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Business Services industry. The technology infrastructure of Australia 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Training and development
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Digital Transformation in Business Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC staying ahead in the Business Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Australia, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Business Services industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to provide better information regarding Business Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is just above the Business Services 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Business Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Business Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Business Services 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.
Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Business Services sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to increase its market reach. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Business Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Business Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC in the Business Services industry. Now Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Threats Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC are -
Environmental challenges
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services 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. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
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. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC in Business Services industry. The Business Services 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC
– 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC.
Regulatory challenges
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Business Services industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Business Services industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business Services 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC 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 Roots Sustainable Agricultural DRC needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.