Stanley Gibbons (SGI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Stanley Gibbons (United Kingdom)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Stanley Gibbons is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Stanley Gibbons

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Stanley Gibbons can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Stanley Gibbons, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Stanley Gibbons 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Stanley Gibbons can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Stanley Gibbons
2. Improving business portfolio management of Stanley Gibbons
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Retail (Specialty) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Stanley Gibbons

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Strengths of Stanley Gibbons | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Stanley Gibbons are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Specialty) industry

– Stanley Gibbons has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Stanley Gibbons to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Stanley Gibbons to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Stanley Gibbons 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 Retail (Specialty) 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Stanley Gibbons is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Specialty) industry. This has provided Stanley Gibbons 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

– Stanley Gibbons is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Specialty) sector.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Stanley Gibbons has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Stanley Gibbons 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Stanley Gibbons 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

– Stanley Gibbons has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Stanley Gibbons to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Digital Transformation in Retail (Specialty) industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Stanley Gibbons digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Stanley Gibbons 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.

Learning organization

- Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Stanley Gibbons emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Stanley Gibbons comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Stanley Gibbons in Retail (Specialty) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Organizational Resilience of Stanley Gibbons

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Stanley Gibbons does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

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Weaknesses of Stanley Gibbons | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Stanley Gibbons are -

Employees’ less understanding of Stanley Gibbons strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Stanley Gibbons 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Stanley Gibbons has some of the most successful models in the Retail (Specialty) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Stanley Gibbons should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Specialty) industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, Stanley Gibbons 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 Retail (Specialty) industry.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Stanley Gibbons, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Specialty) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Stanley Gibbons has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Stanley Gibbons needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Stanley Gibbons is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, but Stanley Gibbons needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Stanley Gibbons to focus more on services in the Retail (Specialty) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Stanley Gibbons is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Specialty) industry in last five years.

High dependence on Stanley Gibbons ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Stanley Gibbons still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Specialty) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Stanley Gibbons has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Stanley Gibbons is just above the Retail (Specialty) 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 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 Stanley Gibbons supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Stanley Gibbons is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Stanley Gibbons vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Lack of clear differentiation of Stanley Gibbons products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Stanley Gibbons needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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Stanley Gibbons Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Stanley Gibbons are -

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Stanley Gibbons is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Stanley Gibbons can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Specialty) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Loyalty marketing

– Stanley Gibbons has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Specialty) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Stanley Gibbons 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. Stanley Gibbons 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Stanley Gibbons 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, Stanley Gibbons 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.

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 Stanley Gibbons 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Stanley Gibbons can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Stanley Gibbons operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Specialty) sector.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Stanley Gibbons to increase its market reach. Stanley Gibbons 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Stanley Gibbons can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Retail (Specialty) sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Stanley Gibbons has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Specialty) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Stanley Gibbons to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Stanley Gibbons to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Stanley Gibbons has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Specialty) industry. This can help Stanley Gibbons to build a more holistic ecosystem for Stanley Gibbons products in the Retail (Specialty) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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. Stanley Gibbons can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Stanley Gibbons 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.

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Threats Stanley Gibbons External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Stanley Gibbons are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Stanley Gibbons may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Specialty) sector.

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 Stanley Gibbons in the Retail (Specialty) 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 Stanley Gibbons.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons prominent markets.

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 Stanley Gibbons business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Stanley Gibbons needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Specialty) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Stanley Gibbons has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Specialty) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Stanley Gibbons needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

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.

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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Specialty) industry are lowering. It can presents Stanley Gibbons with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Specialty) 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. Stanley Gibbons 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Stanley Gibbons in Retail (Specialty) industry. The Retail (Specialty) 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Stanley Gibbons 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 Retail (Specialty) industry regulations.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Stanley Gibbons Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons 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 Stanley Gibbons needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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