SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Ambertech Ltd (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ambertech Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ambertech Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ambertech Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ambertech Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ambertech Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Audio & Video Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ambertech Ltd
Strengths of Ambertech Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ambertech Ltd are -
Innovation driven organization
– Ambertech Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Audio & Video Equipment sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ambertech Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ambertech Ltd 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ambertech Ltd is one of the leading players in the Audio & Video Equipment industry in Australia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Australia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Ambertech Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ambertech Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ambertech Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Audio & Video Equipment industry. This has provided Ambertech Ltd 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ambertech Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Audio & Video Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Ambertech Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Audio & Video Equipment industry
– Ambertech Ltd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Ambertech Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Ambertech Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ambertech Ltd in Audio & Video Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Audio & Video Equipment
– Ambertech Ltd is one of the leading players in the Audio & Video Equipment industry in Australia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Audio & Video Equipment industry in Australia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Ambertech Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ambertech Ltd 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.
Digital Transformation in Audio & Video Equipment industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ambertech Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ambertech Ltd 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.
Weaknesses of Ambertech Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ambertech Ltd are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Australia, Ambertech Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Ambertech Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Ambertech Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ambertech Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Ambertech Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Audio & Video Equipment 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.
High dependence on Ambertech Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Ambertech Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Audio & Video Equipment industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ambertech Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Ambertech Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Audio & Video Equipment industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Ambertech Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ambertech Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Ambertech Ltd 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ambertech Ltd is one of the leading players in the Audio & Video Equipment industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Audio & Video Equipment industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ambertech Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Audio & Video Equipment industry, but Ambertech Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ambertech Ltd to focus more on services in the Audio & Video Equipment industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ambertech Ltd 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 Audio & Video Equipment industry using digital technology.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Ambertech Ltd is just above the Audio & Video Equipment 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.
Ambertech Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Ambertech Ltd are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ambertech Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Audio & Video Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Ambertech Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ambertech Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ambertech Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ambertech Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Audio & Video Equipment sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Audio & Video Equipment industry. This can help Ambertech Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Ambertech Ltd products in the Audio & Video Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Audio & Video Equipment industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ambertech Ltd 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. Ambertech Ltd 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ambertech Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Audio & Video Equipment 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ambertech Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ambertech Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Audio & Video Equipment 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 Ambertech Ltd in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Audio & Video Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Audio & Video Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ambertech Ltd in the Audio & Video Equipment industry. Now Ambertech Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Ambertech Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Audio & Video Equipment 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ambertech Ltd 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Audio & Video Equipment industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ambertech Ltd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ambertech Ltd 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.
Threats Ambertech Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Ambertech Ltd are -
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.
Environmental challenges
– Ambertech Ltd 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. Ambertech Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Audio & Video Equipment industry.
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. Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd 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 Audio & Video Equipment industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ambertech Ltd is facing in Audio & Video Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Audio & Video Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents Ambertech Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Audio & Video Equipment sector.
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 Ambertech Ltd in the Audio & Video Equipment sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ambertech Ltd 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ambertech Ltd 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 Audio & Video Equipment industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Ambertech Ltd
– 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 Ambertech Ltd.
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. Ambertech Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Audio & Video Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ambertech Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd 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 Ambertech Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.