SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for BCA Marketplace (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , BCA Marketplace is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that BCA Marketplace can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the BCA Marketplace, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of BCA Marketplace
2. Improving business portfolio management of BCA Marketplace
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Retail (Specialty) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of BCA Marketplace
Strengths of BCA Marketplace | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of BCA Marketplace are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– BCA Marketplace has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. BCA Marketplace 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of BCA Marketplace in the Services sector have low bargaining power. BCA Marketplace has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps BCA Marketplace to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– BCA Marketplace is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) 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.
Training and development
– BCA Marketplace 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.
High brand equity
– BCA Marketplace has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled BCA Marketplace to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that BCA Marketplace 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Specialty) industry
– BCA Marketplace has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled BCA Marketplace to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped BCA Marketplace to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– BCA Marketplace has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Specialty) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of BCA Marketplace have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at BCA Marketplace emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of BCA Marketplace in Retail (Specialty) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of BCA Marketplace comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Specialty) 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
– BCA Marketplace is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) 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.
Weaknesses of BCA Marketplace | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BCA Marketplace are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As BCA Marketplace is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Specialty) industry in last five years.
Lack of clear differentiation of BCA Marketplace products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, BCA Marketplace needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that BCA Marketplace needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Specialty) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at BCA Marketplace can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as BCA Marketplace is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of BCA Marketplace is just above the Retail (Specialty) 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.
High dependence on BCA Marketplace ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of BCA Marketplace still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Specialty) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though BCA Marketplace has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of BCA Marketplace is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, but BCA Marketplace needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help BCA Marketplace to focus more on services in the Retail (Specialty) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, BCA Marketplace needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Specialty) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, BCA Marketplace is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Retail (Specialty) industry.
Employees’ less understanding of BCA Marketplace strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of BCA Marketplace don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
BCA Marketplace has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Retail (Specialty) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Specialty) industry, BCA Marketplace 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.
BCA Marketplace Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of BCA Marketplace are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, BCA Marketplace is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BCA Marketplace can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Specialty) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– BCA Marketplace has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Specialty) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled BCA Marketplace to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help BCA Marketplace to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for BCA Marketplace in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Specialty) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects BCA Marketplace can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. BCA Marketplace can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, BCA Marketplace 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Specialty) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. BCA Marketplace can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for BCA Marketplace 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of BCA Marketplace has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Specialty) industry. This can help BCA Marketplace to build a more holistic ecosystem for BCA Marketplace products in the Retail (Specialty) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at BCA Marketplace can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Retail (Specialty) industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, BCA Marketplace can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that BCA Marketplace operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Specialty) sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Retail (Specialty) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for BCA Marketplace in the Retail (Specialty) industry. Now BCA Marketplace can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– BCA Marketplace can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Specialty) 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.
Threats BCA Marketplace External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of BCA Marketplace are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– BCA Marketplace has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Specialty) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, BCA Marketplace needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Specialty) 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Specialty) industry are lowering. It can presents BCA Marketplace with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Specialty) sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on BCA Marketplace demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in Retail (Specialty) industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of BCA Marketplace
– 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 BCA Marketplace.
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 BCA Marketplace in the Retail (Specialty) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– BCA Marketplace 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 Retail (Specialty) industry regulations.
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 BCA Marketplace.
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 BCA Marketplace business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– BCA Marketplace 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. BCA Marketplace can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, BCA Marketplace may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Specialty) sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace prominent markets.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. BCA Marketplace needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Specialty) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Specialty) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. BCA Marketplace can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BCA Marketplace Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace 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 BCA Marketplace needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.