Atea (0JWO) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Atea (United Kingdom)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Atea is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Atea

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

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Strengths of Atea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Atea are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– Atea has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Technology) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Atea have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Atea is one of the leading players in the Retail (Technology) industry in United Kingdom. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United Kingdom. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Atea 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.

Learning organization

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

Training and development

– Atea 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.

Organizational Resilience of Atea

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Atea 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 Atea in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Atea has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Atea to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Technology) industry

– Atea has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Atea to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Technology) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Atea to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High brand equity

– Atea has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Atea to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Atea has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Atea 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.

Analytics focus

– Atea 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 Retail (Technology) industry. The technology infrastructure of United Kingdom 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.

Digital Transformation in Retail (Technology) industry

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

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Weaknesses of Atea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Atea are -

Employees’ less understanding of Atea strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Atea 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 decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Atea 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. Atea 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Atea, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Technology) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Atea has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Technology) industry, Atea 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Atea is one of the leading players in the Retail (Technology) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Technology) industry in last five years.

Skills based hiring in Retail (Technology) industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Atea has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Atea 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 Retail (Technology) industry using digital technology.

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

Aligning sales with marketing

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

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Atea is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Atea to provide better information regarding Retail (Technology) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Technology) industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Atea 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.

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Atea Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Atea are -

Developing new processes and practices

– Atea 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Atea to increase its market reach. Atea 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Atea has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Technology) industry. This can help Atea to build a more holistic ecosystem for Atea products in the Retail (Technology) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Atea is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Atea 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Atea 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Atea 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Retail (Technology) industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Atea in the Retail (Technology) industry. Now Atea can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

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 Atea 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Atea 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Atea 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Atea 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.

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Threats Atea External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Atea are -

Consumer confidence and its impact on Atea 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 Retail (Technology) industry and other sectors.

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. Atea can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Atea 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 Atea prominent markets.

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. Atea needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Technology) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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. Atea 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.

Increasing wage structure of Atea

– 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 Atea.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Atea in Retail (Technology) industry. The Retail (Technology) 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Atea has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Technology) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Atea needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Technology) 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Atea is facing in Retail (Technology) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Atea 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Atea 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.

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 Atea in the Retail (Technology) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Technology) industry are lowering. It can presents Atea with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Technology) sector.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atea Template, Example

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

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