TCS Group Holding PLC (TCSq) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for TCS Group Holding PLC (United Kingdom)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , TCS Group Holding PLC is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TCS Group Holding PLC

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

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Strengths of TCS Group Holding PLC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of TCS Group Holding PLC are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– TCS Group Holding PLC has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Consumer Financial Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of TCS Group Holding PLC have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of TCS Group Holding PLC comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Consumer Financial 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

– TCS Group Holding PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services 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.

High brand equity

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

Ability to lead change in Consumer Financial Services

– TCS Group Holding PLC is one of the leading players in the Consumer Financial Services industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Consumer Financial Services industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled TCS Group Holding PLC in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Innovation driven organization

– TCS Group Holding PLC is one of the most innovative firm in Consumer Financial Services sector.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– TCS Group Holding PLC has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – TCS Group Holding PLC staying ahead in the Consumer Financial Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Successful track record of launching new products

– TCS Group Holding PLC has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

Learning organization

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of TCS Group Holding PLC in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. TCS Group Holding PLC has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps TCS Group Holding PLC to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

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Weaknesses of TCS Group Holding PLC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of TCS Group Holding PLC are -

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, TCS Group Holding PLC needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of TCS Group Holding PLC, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Consumer Financial 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.

High dependence on TCS Group Holding PLC ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of TCS Group Holding PLC still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Consumer Financial Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though TCS Group Holding PLC has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at TCS Group Holding PLC, in the dynamic environment of Consumer Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. TCS Group Holding PLC has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, TCS Group Holding PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services industry using digital technology.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Consumer Financial Services industry, TCS Group Holding PLC 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, TCS Group Holding PLC has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Consumer Financial Services industry over the last five years. TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

Skills based hiring in Consumer Financial Services industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

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

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, TCS Group Holding PLC has high operating costs in the Consumer Financial Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract TCS Group Holding PLC lucrative customers.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, TCS Group Holding PLC is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help TCS Group Holding PLC to provide better information regarding Consumer Financial Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

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TCS Group Holding PLC Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of TCS Group Holding PLC are -

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, TCS Group Holding PLC is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. TCS Group Holding PLC can utilize new technology in the field of Consumer Financial Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Buying journey improvements

– TCS Group Holding PLC can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Consumer Financial Services 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Consumer Financial Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. TCS Group Holding PLC can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help TCS Group Holding PLC to increase its market reach. TCS Group Holding PLC 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 TCS Group Holding PLC can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Leveraging digital technologies

– TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

Loyalty marketing

– TCS Group Holding PLC 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, TCS Group Holding PLC can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that TCS Group Holding PLC operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Consumer Financial Services sector.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Consumer Financial Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. TCS Group Holding PLC 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. TCS Group Holding PLC 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

– TCS Group Holding PLC can develop new processes and procedures in Consumer Financial 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– TCS Group Holding PLC has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Consumer Financial Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled TCS Group Holding PLC to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help TCS Group Holding PLC 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 TCS Group Holding PLC has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Consumer Financial Services industry. This can help TCS Group Holding PLC to build a more holistic ecosystem for TCS Group Holding PLC products in the Consumer Financial Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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. TCS Group Holding PLC can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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Threats TCS Group Holding PLC External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of TCS Group Holding PLC are -

Increasing wage structure of TCS Group Holding PLC

– 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 TCS Group Holding PLC.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– TCS Group Holding PLC 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 Consumer Financial 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. TCS Group Holding PLC needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Consumer Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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 TCS Group Holding PLC.

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. TCS Group Holding PLC 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, TCS Group Holding PLC 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 TCS Group Holding PLC prominent markets.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– TCS Group Holding PLC has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Consumer Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, TCS Group Holding PLC needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Consumer Financial 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.

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 TCS Group Holding PLC in the Consumer Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, TCS Group Holding PLC may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Consumer Financial Services sector.

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 TCS Group Holding PLC business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on TCS Group Holding PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services industry and other sectors.

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.

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of TCS Group Holding PLC Template, Example

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

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