SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Oracle Coalfields (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Oracle Coalfields is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Oracle Coalfields
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Oracle Coalfields can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oracle Coalfields, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Oracle Coalfields
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oracle Coalfields
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Coal sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Oracle Coalfields
Strengths of Oracle Coalfields | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oracle Coalfields are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Oracle Coalfields is present in almost all the verticals within the Coal industry. This has provided Oracle Coalfields 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.
Learning organization
- Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Oracle Coalfields emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Oracle Coalfields is one of the most innovative firm in Coal sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Oracle Coalfields in the Energy sector have low bargaining power. Oracle Coalfields has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oracle Coalfields to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Oracle Coalfields has one of the best training and development program in Energy 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Oracle Coalfields is one of the leading players in the Coal 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.
Ability to lead change in Coal
– Oracle Coalfields is one of the leading players in the Coal industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Coal industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Coal 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 Oracle Coalfields in Coal industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oracle Coalfields 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oracle Coalfields has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Oracle Coalfields staying ahead in the Coal industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Coal industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Oracle Coalfields digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Oracle Coalfields 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.
Weaknesses of Oracle Coalfields | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Oracle Coalfields are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Oracle Coalfields is one of the leading players in the Coal industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Coal industry in last five years.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Oracle Coalfields 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 Coal industry using digital technology.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oracle Coalfields 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Oracle Coalfields, in the dynamic environment of Coal industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oracle Coalfields has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Oracle Coalfields has some of the most successful models in the Coal industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Oracle Coalfields should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Oracle Coalfields is just above the Coal 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.
Skills based hiring in Coal industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oracle Coalfields has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High 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 Oracle Coalfields supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Oracle Coalfields is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oracle Coalfields vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United Kingdom, Oracle Coalfields needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Oracle Coalfields needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Coal industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Oracle Coalfields can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oracle Coalfields is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Oracle Coalfields, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Coal 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.
Oracle Coalfields Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Oracle Coalfields are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Coal industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Oracle Coalfields 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, Oracle Coalfields can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oracle Coalfields operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Coal sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oracle Coalfields 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oracle Coalfields in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Coal industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oracle Coalfields to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oracle Coalfields 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oracle Coalfields to increase its market reach. Oracle Coalfields 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Oracle Coalfields 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.
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 Oracle Coalfields 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.
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. Oracle Coalfields can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oracle Coalfields has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Coal sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Oracle Coalfields to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Coal industry. This can help Oracle Coalfields to build a more holistic ecosystem for Oracle Coalfields products in the Coal industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Oracle Coalfields External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Oracle Coalfields are -
Increasing wage structure of Oracle Coalfields
– 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 Oracle Coalfields.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Oracle Coalfields 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 Coal industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Coal industry are lowering. It can presents Oracle Coalfields with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Coal sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oracle Coalfields is facing in Coal sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Oracle Coalfields 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. Oracle Coalfields can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Coal industry.
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.
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 Oracle Coalfields.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oracle Coalfields can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Coal industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oracle Coalfields in Coal industry. The Coal 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oracle Coalfields 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Coal industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Oracle Coalfields can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Oracle Coalfields Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields 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 Oracle Coalfields needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.