Boussard and Gavaudan Hold (BGHS) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Boussard and Gavaudan Hold, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold
2. Improving business portfolio management of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold
Strengths of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
High brand equity
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is one of the leading players in the 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.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Boussard and Gavaudan Hold digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in the sector have low bargaining power. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Boussard and Gavaudan Hold staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Weaknesses of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Boussard and Gavaudan Hold needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Boussard and Gavaudan Hold needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Boussard and Gavaudan Hold vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is just above the 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Employees’ less understanding of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is one of the leading players in the industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Boussard and Gavaudan Hold Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 industry.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in the industry. Now Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to build a more holistic ecosystem for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to increase its market reach. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Boussard and Gavaudan Hold External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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.
Increasing wage structure of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold
– 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in industry. The 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.
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.
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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Boussard and Gavaudan Hold has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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 industry are lowering. It can presents Boussard and Gavaudan Hold with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of 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, Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold prominent markets.
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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Boussard and Gavaudan Hold Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold 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 Boussard and Gavaudan Hold needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
