Vilmorin&Cie (0HJC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Crops
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Vilmorin&Cie (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Vilmorin&Cie is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Vilmorin&Cie can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vilmorin&Cie, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Vilmorin&Cie
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vilmorin&Cie
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Vilmorin&Cie
Strengths of Vilmorin&Cie | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vilmorin&Cie are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Vilmorin&Cie in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Vilmorin&Cie has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Vilmorin&Cie to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Vilmorin&Cie comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Crops 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry
– Vilmorin&Cie has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vilmorin&Cie to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vilmorin&Cie to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vilmorin&Cie in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vilmorin&Cie has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vilmorin&Cie 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– Vilmorin&Cie is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vilmorin&Cie is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Vilmorin&Cie 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vilmorin&Cie 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.
Analytics focus
– Vilmorin&Cie 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 Crops 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
– Vilmorin&Cie has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vilmorin&Cie to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Vilmorin&Cie emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vilmorin&Cie are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Vilmorin&Cie is just above the Crops 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Vilmorin&Cie has high operating costs in the Crops industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Vilmorin&Cie lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Vilmorin&Cie needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Vilmorin&Cie can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vilmorin&Cie is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring in Crops industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Vilmorin&Cie 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Crops industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Vilmorin&Cie 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 Crops industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Vilmorin&Cie 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Vilmorin&Cie, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Crops 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 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 Vilmorin&Cie supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Vilmorin&Cie is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Vilmorin&Cie vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Vilmorin&Cie has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Crops industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Employees’ less understanding of Vilmorin&Cie strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Vilmorin&Cie 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Vilmorin&Cie needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Vilmorin&Cie Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Vilmorin&Cie are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Vilmorin&Cie can develop new processes and procedures in Crops 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vilmorin&Cie has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Crops industry. This can help Vilmorin&Cie to build a more holistic ecosystem for Vilmorin&Cie products in the Crops industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Vilmorin&Cie can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vilmorin&Cie to increase its market reach. Vilmorin&Cie 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.
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. Vilmorin&Cie can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Vilmorin&Cie can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vilmorin&Cie can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vilmorin&Cie operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vilmorin&Cie has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Crops sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Vilmorin&Cie to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Crops 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 Crops industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Vilmorin&Cie can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Vilmorin&Cie in the Crops industry. Now Vilmorin&Cie can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Vilmorin&Cie External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Vilmorin&Cie are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vilmorin&Cie 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.
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. Vilmorin&Cie 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vilmorin&Cie is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Vilmorin&Cie business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Vilmorin&Cie may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Crops sector.
Increasing wage structure of Vilmorin&Cie
– 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 Vilmorin&Cie.
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 Vilmorin&Cie.
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. Vilmorin&Cie needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Vilmorin&Cie 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. Vilmorin&Cie can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Vilmorin&Cie with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vilmorin&Cie 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 Crops industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vilmorin&Cie Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie 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 Vilmorin&Cie needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.