Getlink (0P72) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Railroads
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Getlink (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Getlink is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Getlink can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Getlink, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Getlink 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 Getlink can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Getlink
2. Improving business portfolio management of Getlink
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Railroads sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Getlink
Strengths of Getlink | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Getlink are -
Digital Transformation in Railroads industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Getlink digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Getlink 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.
High brand equity
– Getlink has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Getlink to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Getlink 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 Railroads 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.
Ability to lead change in Railroads
– Getlink is one of the leading players in the Railroads industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Railroads industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Getlink in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Getlink is one of the leading players in the Railroads 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Getlink has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Getlink has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Getlink has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Getlink staying ahead in the Railroads industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Getlink in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Getlink has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Getlink to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Getlink in Railroads industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Getlink 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 Getlink is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Getlink emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Getlink has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Getlink 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.
Weaknesses of Getlink | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Getlink are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Getlink 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Getlink, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Railroads 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Getlink 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Railroads industry, Getlink 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Getlink has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Railroads industry over the last five years. Getlink 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Getlink needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Getlink needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Railroads industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Getlink can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Getlink is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Getlink is one of the leading players in the Railroads industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Railroads industry in last five years.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Getlink 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 Railroads industry using digital technology.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Getlink has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Railroads industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Getlink has high operating costs in the Railroads industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Getlink lucrative customers.
Getlink Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Getlink are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Getlink has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Railroads industry. This can help Getlink to build a more holistic ecosystem for Getlink products in the Railroads industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Getlink has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Railroads sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Getlink to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Getlink to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Getlink 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 Railroads industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Getlink to increase its market reach. Getlink 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, Getlink 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 Getlink to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Railroads industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Getlink 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, Getlink 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.
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 Getlink 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Getlink is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Getlink can utilize new technology in the field of Railroads industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Getlink 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Getlink can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Railroads industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Getlink 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. Getlink 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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Getlink can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Getlink External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Getlink are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Getlink 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 Railroads industry and other sectors.
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 Getlink in the Railroads sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Getlink 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 Railroads industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Getlink 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Getlink is facing in Railroads sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Getlink 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 Railroads industry.
Environmental challenges
– Getlink 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. Getlink can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Railroads industry.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Getlink.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Railroads industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Getlink can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Getlink business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Getlink has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Railroads industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Getlink needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Railroads 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Getlink in Railroads industry. The Railroads 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Getlink Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Getlink 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 Getlink 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 Getlink 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 Getlink 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 Getlink needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
