U Blox Holding AG (0QNI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Communications Equipment
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for U Blox Holding AG (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , U Blox Holding AG is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of U Blox Holding AG
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that U Blox Holding AG can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the U Blox Holding AG, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which U Blox Holding 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.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of U Blox Holding AG can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of U Blox Holding AG
2. Improving business portfolio management of U Blox Holding AG
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Communications Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of U Blox Holding AG
Strengths of U Blox Holding AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of U Blox Holding AG are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– U Blox Holding AG is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of U Blox Holding AG in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. U Blox Holding AG has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps U Blox Holding AG to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding AG is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at U Blox Holding AG emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Communications Equipment industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For U Blox Holding AG digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. U Blox Holding AG has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Analytics focus
– U Blox Holding AG 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 Communications Equipment 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of U Blox Holding AG in Communications Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– U Blox Holding AG has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of U Blox Holding AG have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– U Blox Holding AG is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Equipment sector.
Ability to lead change in Communications Equipment
– U Blox Holding AG is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Communications Equipment industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled U Blox Holding AG in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of U Blox Holding AG comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Communications Equipment 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.
Organizational Resilience of U Blox Holding AG
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing U Blox Holding AG does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Communications Equipment industry
– U Blox Holding AG is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of U Blox Holding AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of U Blox Holding AG are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Communications Equipment industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, U Blox Holding 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 Communications Equipment industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, U Blox Holding AG 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 Communications Equipment industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of U Blox Holding AG is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communications Equipment industry, but U Blox Holding AG needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help U Blox Holding AG to focus more on services in the Communications Equipment industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at U Blox Holding AG, in the dynamic environment of Communications Equipment industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. U Blox Holding AG has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– U Blox Holding AG 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, U Blox Holding AG needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of U Blox Holding AG strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of U Blox Holding AG 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of U Blox Holding AG is just above the Communications Equipment 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 U Blox Holding AG ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of U Blox Holding AG still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Equipment industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though U Blox Holding AG has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though U Blox Holding AG has some of the most successful models in the Communications Equipment industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. U Blox Holding AG should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
U Blox Holding AG has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Communications Equipment industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
U Blox Holding AG Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of U Blox Holding AG are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for U Blox Holding 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 Communications Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– U Blox Holding AG 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for U Blox Holding AG in the Communications Equipment industry. Now U Blox Holding AG can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. U Blox Holding AG can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding AG to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help U Blox Holding AG to increase its market reach. U Blox Holding 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.
Buying journey improvements
– U Blox Holding AG can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Communications Equipment 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, U Blox Holding AG can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that U Blox Holding AG operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communications Equipment sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects U Blox Holding AG can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communications Equipment industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. U Blox Holding AG can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, U Blox Holding AG is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. U Blox Holding AG can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Equipment industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of U Blox Holding AG has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Equipment industry. This can help U Blox Holding AG to build a more holistic ecosystem for U Blox Holding AG products in the Communications Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats U Blox Holding AG External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of U Blox Holding AG are -
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. U Blox Holding AG needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that U Blox Holding AG is facing in Communications Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– U Blox Holding 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. U Blox Holding AG can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Equipment industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– U Blox Holding AG 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.
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 U Blox Holding AG business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 U Blox Holding AG.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents U Blox Holding AG with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Equipment 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding AG prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on U Blox Holding 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 Communications Equipment industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding AG.
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. U Blox Holding 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of U Blox Holding AG Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding 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 U Blox Holding AG needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
