Oesterr. Post AG (0NTM) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Oesterr. Post AG (United Kingdom)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Oesterr. Post AG is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Oesterr. Post AG

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

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Strengths of Oesterr. Post AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Oesterr. Post AG are -

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Oesterr. Post AG 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

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

Successful track record of launching new products

– Oesterr. Post AG has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oesterr. Post AG 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Oesterr. Post AG in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– Oesterr. Post AG is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided Oesterr. Post AG 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Oesterr. Post AG comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Business 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.

Training and development

– Oesterr. Post AG 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 Oesterr. Post AG

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Oesterr. Post AG does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry

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

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Oesterr. Post AG has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Oesterr. Post AG staying ahead in the Business Services 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 Oesterr. Post AG in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Oesterr. Post AG has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oesterr. Post AG to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Innovation driven organization

– Oesterr. Post AG is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.

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Weaknesses of Oesterr. Post AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Oesterr. Post AG are -

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Oesterr. Post AG has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Business 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Oesterr. Post AG is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Oesterr. Post AG needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oesterr. Post AG to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Oesterr. Post AG needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Oesterr. Post AG has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Oesterr. Post AG should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Oesterr. Post AG, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Business 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Oesterr. Post AG products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oesterr. Post AG needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Business Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Oesterr. Post AG 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 Business Services industry.

Aligning sales with marketing

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

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Oesterr. Post AG 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

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

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oesterr. Post AG has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Business Services industry over the last five years. Oesterr. Post AG 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.

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Oesterr. Post AG Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Oesterr. Post AG are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oesterr. Post AG to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

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. Oesterr. Post AG can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Increase in government spending

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

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oesterr. Post AG 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 Oesterr. Post AG to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Loyalty marketing

– Oesterr. Post AG 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oesterr. Post AG 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 Oesterr. Post AG to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

Developing new processes and practices

– Oesterr. Post AG can develop new processes and procedures in Business 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oesterr. Post AG in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Business Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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 Oesterr. Post AG 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.

Better consumer reach

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

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

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Threats Oesterr. Post AG External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Oesterr. Post AG are -

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Increasing wage structure of Oesterr. Post AG

– 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 Oesterr. Post AG.

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. Oesterr. Post AG needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oesterr. Post AG 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 Oesterr. Post AG prominent markets.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Oesterr. Post AG may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Oesterr. Post AG has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oesterr. Post AG needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Oesterr. Post AG 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– Oesterr. Post AG 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 Business Services industry regulations.

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 Oesterr. Post AG in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Oesterr. Post AG 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 Business Services industry.

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 Oesterr. Post AG business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Environmental challenges

– Oesterr. Post AG 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. Oesterr. Post AG can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services industry.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Oesterr. Post AG 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Oesterr. Post AG Template, Example

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

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