The Peoples Operator (TPOP) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for The Peoples Operator (United Kingdom)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , The Peoples Operator is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Peoples Operator

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that The Peoples Operator can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the The Peoples Operator, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which The Peoples Operator 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 The Peoples Operator can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of The Peoples Operator
2. Improving business portfolio management of The Peoples Operator
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Communications Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of The Peoples Operator

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Strengths of The Peoples Operator | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of The Peoples Operator are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of The Peoples Operator comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Communications Services 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.

Analytics focus

– The Peoples Operator 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 Communications Services 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– The Peoples Operator has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – The Peoples Operator staying ahead in the Communications Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Strong track record of project management in the Communications Services industry

– The Peoples Operator 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 switching costs

– The high switching costs that The Peoples Operator 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– The Peoples Operator is one of the leading players in the Communications Services 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

– The Peoples Operator has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of The Peoples Operator have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

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

Organizational Resilience of The Peoples Operator

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communications Services industry

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

Training and development

– The Peoples Operator has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of The Peoples Operator in the Services sector have low bargaining power. The Peoples Operator has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps The Peoples Operator to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

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Weaknesses of The Peoples Operator | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of The Peoples Operator are -

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, The Peoples Operator has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Communications Services industry over the last five years. The Peoples Operator 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Communications Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United Kingdom, The Peoples Operator 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 Communications Services industry.

Employees’ less understanding of The Peoples Operator strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of The Peoples Operator 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

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

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, The Peoples Operator 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 Communications Services industry using digital technology.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at The Peoples Operator, in the dynamic environment of Communications Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. The Peoples Operator has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, The Peoples Operator has high operating costs in the Communications Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract The Peoples Operator lucrative customers.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As The Peoples Operator is one of the leading players in the Communications Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Communications Services industry in last five years.

Products dominated business model

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

Skills based hiring in Communications Services industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at The Peoples Operator 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.

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The Peoples Operator Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of The Peoples Operator are -

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects The Peoples Operator can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, The Peoples Operator is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Peoples Operator can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. The Peoples Operator can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Loyalty marketing

– The Peoples Operator 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– The Peoples Operator 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Communications Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. The Peoples Operator 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. The Peoples Operator 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– The Peoples Operator can develop new processes and procedures in Communications Services 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communications Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. The Peoples Operator can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for The Peoples Operator 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Manufacturing automation

– The Peoples Operator can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communications Services 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.

Better consumer reach

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

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of The Peoples Operator has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Services industry. This can help The Peoples Operator to build a more holistic ecosystem for The Peoples Operator products in the Communications Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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Threats The Peoples Operator External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of The Peoples Operator are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, The Peoples Operator may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Services sector.

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.

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. The Peoples Operator 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that The Peoples Operator is facing in Communications Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Environmental challenges

– The Peoples Operator 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. The Peoples Operator can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Services industry.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for The Peoples Operator in Communications Services industry. The Communications Services 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.

Increasing wage structure of The Peoples Operator

– 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 The Peoples Operator.

Regulatory challenges

– The Peoples Operator 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 Communications Services industry regulations.

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. The Peoples Operator needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– The Peoples Operator has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communications Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, The Peoples Operator needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communications Services 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.

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 The Peoples Operator.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– The Peoples Operator 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 Communications Services industry.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Peoples Operator Template, Example

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

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