Purecircle (PURE) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Beverages (Nonalcoholic)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Purecircle (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Purecircle is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Purecircle can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Purecircle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Purecircle 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 Purecircle can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Purecircle
2. Improving business portfolio management of Purecircle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Purecircle
Strengths of Purecircle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Purecircle are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Purecircle is present in almost all the verticals within the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This has provided Purecircle 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Purecircle is one of the most innovative firm in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Purecircle has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Purecircle staying ahead in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Purecircle in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Beverages (Nonalcoholic)
– Purecircle is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Purecircle 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 Purecircle comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Purecircle 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry
– Purecircle is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Purecircle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Purecircle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Purecircle has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Purecircle has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Purecircle have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Purecircle is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Weaknesses of Purecircle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Purecircle are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Purecircle is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Purecircle is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Purecircle to provide better information regarding Beverages (Nonalcoholic) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Purecircle has some of the most successful models in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Purecircle should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Purecircle has high operating costs in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Purecircle lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Purecircle, in the dynamic environment of Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Purecircle has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, Purecircle 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Purecircle 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Purecircle 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 Purecircle, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Purecircle needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Purecircle can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Purecircle is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Purecircle ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Purecircle still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Purecircle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Purecircle Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Purecircle are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Purecircle 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Purecircle 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 Purecircle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Purecircle can develop new processes and procedures in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Purecircle in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. Now Purecircle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Purecircle is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Purecircle can utilize new technology in the field of Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Purecircle can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Purecircle can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Purecircle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This can help Purecircle to build a more holistic ecosystem for Purecircle products in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Purecircle 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Purecircle can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Purecircle can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Purecircle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Purecircle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.
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. Purecircle can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Purecircle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Purecircle External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Purecircle are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Purecircle 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 Purecircle prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Purecircle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Purecircle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
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 Purecircle in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Purecircle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.
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. Purecircle 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Purecircle in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. The Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Purecircle can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Purecircle 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. Purecircle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Purecircle 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry are lowering. It can presents Purecircle with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.
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. Purecircle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Purecircle 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Purecircle Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Purecircle 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 Purecircle 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 Purecircle 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 Purecircle 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 Purecircle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.