SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Globaltrans Inv (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Globaltrans Inv is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Globaltrans Inv can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Globaltrans Inv, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Globaltrans Inv
2. Improving business portfolio management of Globaltrans Inv
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 Globaltrans Inv
Strengths of Globaltrans Inv | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Globaltrans Inv are -
Strong track record of project management in the Railroads industry
– Globaltrans Inv is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Globaltrans Inv 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Globaltrans Inv comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Railroads 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.
Learning organization
- Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Globaltrans Inv emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Globaltrans Inv has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Railroads industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Globaltrans Inv have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Globaltrans Inv in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Globaltrans Inv has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Globaltrans Inv to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Globaltrans Inv 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Railroads industry
– Globaltrans Inv has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Globaltrans Inv to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Railroads industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Globaltrans Inv to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Globaltrans Inv has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Globaltrans Inv 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.
Weaknesses of Globaltrans Inv | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Globaltrans Inv are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Railroads industry, Globaltrans Inv 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.
High dependence on Globaltrans Inv ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Globaltrans Inv still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Railroads industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Globaltrans Inv has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Globaltrans Inv 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Railroads industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Globaltrans Inv 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 Railroads industry.
Employees’ less understanding of Globaltrans Inv strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Globaltrans Inv 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.
Skills based hiring in Railroads industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Globaltrans Inv 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Globaltrans Inv 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Globaltrans Inv, in the dynamic environment of Railroads industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Globaltrans Inv has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Globaltrans Inv 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Globaltrans Inv is planning to shift buying processes online.
Globaltrans Inv Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Globaltrans Inv are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Globaltrans Inv is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Globaltrans Inv 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Globaltrans Inv can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Globaltrans Inv 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Globaltrans Inv in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Railroads industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Globaltrans Inv can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Globaltrans Inv to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Globaltrans Inv 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Globaltrans Inv can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Railroads 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Globaltrans Inv 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Globaltrans Inv has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Railroads industry. This can help Globaltrans Inv to build a more holistic ecosystem for Globaltrans Inv products in the Railroads industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Globaltrans Inv 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.
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. Globaltrans Inv can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Globaltrans Inv External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Globaltrans Inv are -
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. Globaltrans Inv can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Globaltrans Inv is facing in Railroads sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Globaltrans Inv 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.
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. Globaltrans Inv 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Globaltrans Inv 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Globaltrans Inv 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.
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. Globaltrans Inv needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Railroads industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Railroads industry are lowering. It can presents Globaltrans Inv with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Railroads sector.
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 Globaltrans Inv.
Increasing wage structure of Globaltrans Inv
– 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 Globaltrans Inv.
Environmental challenges
– Globaltrans Inv 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. Globaltrans Inv can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Railroads industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Globaltrans Inv Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv 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 Globaltrans Inv needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.