SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Itissalat Al-Maghrib (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Itissalat Al-Maghrib is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Itissalat Al-Maghrib can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Itissalat Al-Maghrib, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
2. Improving business portfolio management of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Communications Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
Strengths of Itissalat Al-Maghrib | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Itissalat Al-Maghrib comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Communications 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is present in almost all the verticals within the Communications Services industry. This has provided Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Itissalat Al-Maghrib have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Itissalat Al-Maghrib in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Itissalat Al-Maghrib has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Itissalat Al-Maghrib to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Communications Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Itissalat Al-Maghrib digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Training and development
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Learning organization
- Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Itissalat Al-Maghrib emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Itissalat Al-Maghrib in Communications Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Itissalat Al-Maghrib does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Itissalat Al-Maghrib to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Services sector.
Weaknesses of Itissalat Al-Maghrib | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Need for greater diversity
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Itissalat Al-Maghrib is just above the Communications 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Itissalat Al-Maghrib products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Communications Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry.
High dependence on Itissalat Al-Maghrib ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Itissalat Al-Maghrib still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Itissalat Al-Maghrib has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Itissalat Al-Maghrib is one of the leading players in the Communications Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Communications Services industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Itissalat Al-Maghrib is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to provide better information regarding Communications Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Communications Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Itissalat Al-Maghrib can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Itissalat Al-Maghrib is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Itissalat Al-Maghrib has some of the most successful models in the Communications Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Itissalat Al-Maghrib should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Itissalat Al-Maghrib has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Communications Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Itissalat Al-Maghrib, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Communications 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.
Itissalat Al-Maghrib Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry.
Manufacturing automation
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communications Services 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.
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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Communications Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Itissalat Al-Maghrib to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Itissalat Al-Maghrib has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Services industry. This can help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to build a more holistic ecosystem for Itissalat Al-Maghrib products in the Communications Services 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Itissalat Al-Maghrib in the Communications Services industry. Now Itissalat Al-Maghrib can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to increase its market reach. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Itissalat Al-Maghrib can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Itissalat Al-Maghrib is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Itissalat Al-Maghrib can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Itissalat Al-Maghrib External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Regulatory challenges
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Itissalat Al-Maghrib is facing in Communications Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communications Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Itissalat Al-Maghrib can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Services industry are lowering. It can presents Itissalat Al-Maghrib with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Services sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Itissalat Al-Maghrib may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Services sector.
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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Services industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Itissalat Al-Maghrib Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.