SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Boxhill Tech (United Kingdom)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Boxhill Tech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Boxhill Tech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Boxhill Tech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Boxhill Tech
2. Improving business portfolio management of Boxhill Tech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Casinos & Gaming sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Boxhill Tech
Strengths of Boxhill Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Boxhill Tech are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Casinos & Gaming industry
– Boxhill Tech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Boxhill Tech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Casinos & Gaming industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Boxhill Tech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Boxhill Tech
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Boxhill Tech does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Casinos & Gaming industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Boxhill Tech digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Boxhill Tech 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Boxhill Tech 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Boxhill Tech in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Boxhill Tech has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Boxhill Tech to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Boxhill Tech has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Boxhill Tech staying ahead in the Casinos & Gaming industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Boxhill Tech comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Boxhill Tech is one of the most innovative firm in Casinos & Gaming sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Boxhill Tech is one of the leading players in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Boxhill Tech has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Casinos & Gaming industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Boxhill Tech have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Boxhill Tech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Boxhill Tech has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Boxhill Tech to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Boxhill Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Boxhill Tech are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Boxhill Tech is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Casinos & Gaming industry, but Boxhill Tech needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Boxhill Tech to focus more on services in the Casinos & Gaming industry rather than just following the product 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 Boxhill Tech supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Boxhill Tech is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Boxhill Tech vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Boxhill Tech has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Casinos & Gaming industry over the last five years. Boxhill Tech 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.
Skills based hiring in Casinos & Gaming industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Boxhill Tech 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Boxhill Tech, in the dynamic environment of Casinos & Gaming industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Boxhill Tech 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 Casinos & Gaming industry, Boxhill Tech 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Boxhill Tech has some of the most successful models in the Casinos & Gaming industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Boxhill Tech should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Boxhill Tech has high operating costs in the Casinos & Gaming industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Boxhill Tech lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Boxhill Tech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Boxhill Tech 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Boxhill Tech is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Boxhill Tech to provide better information regarding Casinos & Gaming products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Boxhill Tech has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Casinos & Gaming industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Boxhill Tech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Boxhill Tech are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Boxhill Tech to increase its market reach. Boxhill Tech 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Boxhill Tech is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Boxhill Tech can utilize new technology in the field of Casinos & Gaming industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Boxhill Tech 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 Casinos & Gaming industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Boxhill Tech 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. Boxhill Tech 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Boxhill Tech can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Casinos & Gaming industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Boxhill Tech in the Casinos & Gaming industry. Now Boxhill Tech can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Boxhill Tech can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Boxhill Tech operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Casinos & Gaming sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Boxhill Tech can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Boxhill Tech 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 Casinos & Gaming industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Boxhill Tech has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Casinos & Gaming industry. This can help Boxhill Tech to build a more holistic ecosystem for Boxhill Tech products in the Casinos & Gaming industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Boxhill Tech in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Casinos & Gaming industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Boxhill Tech 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Casinos & Gaming industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Boxhill Tech can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Boxhill Tech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Boxhill Tech are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Boxhill Tech 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.
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 Boxhill Tech 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. Boxhill Tech needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Casinos & Gaming industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Boxhill Tech 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 Casinos & Gaming industry.
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 Boxhill Tech in the Casinos & Gaming 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 Boxhill Tech.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Boxhill Tech in Casinos & Gaming industry. The Casinos & Gaming 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Boxhill Tech 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 Casinos & Gaming industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Boxhill Tech
– 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 Boxhill Tech.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Casinos & Gaming industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Boxhill Tech can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Boxhill Tech is facing in Casinos & Gaming sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Casinos & Gaming industry are lowering. It can presents Boxhill Tech with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Casinos & Gaming sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Boxhill Tech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech 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 Boxhill Tech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.