TA Enterprise (TAES) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for TA Enterprise (Malaysia)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , TA Enterprise is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TA Enterprise

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

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Strengths of TA Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of TA Enterprise are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of TA Enterprise comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Hotels & Motels 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Training and development

– TA Enterprise 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– TA Enterprise is present in almost all the verticals within the Hotels & Motels industry. This has provided TA Enterprise 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.

High brand equity

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– TA Enterprise is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry in Malaysia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Malaysia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Digital Transformation in Hotels & Motels industry

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

Strong track record of project management in the Hotels & Motels industry

– TA Enterprise is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of TA Enterprise in Hotels & Motels industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Learning organization

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

Ability to lead change in Hotels & Motels

– TA Enterprise is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry in Malaysia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Hotels & Motels industry in Malaysia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled TA Enterprise in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that TA Enterprise 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.

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Weaknesses of TA Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of TA Enterprise are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, TA Enterprise is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help TA Enterprise to provide better information regarding Hotels & Motels products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As TA Enterprise is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Hotels & Motels industry in last five years.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that TA Enterprise needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Hotels & Motels industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at TA Enterprise can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as TA Enterprise is planning to shift buying processes online.

Lack of clear differentiation of TA Enterprise products

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

High bargaining power of channel partners in Hotels & Motels industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Malaysia, TA Enterprise 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 Hotels & Motels industry.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, TA Enterprise has high operating costs in the Hotels & Motels industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract TA Enterprise lucrative customers.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, TA Enterprise has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Hotels & Motels industry over the last five years. TA Enterprise 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of TA Enterprise, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Hotels & Motels 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Need for greater diversity

– TA Enterprise has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

High dependence on TA Enterprise ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of TA Enterprise still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Hotels & Motels industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though TA Enterprise has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

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TA Enterprise Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of TA Enterprise are -

Developing new processes and practices

– TA Enterprise can develop new processes and procedures in Hotels & Motels 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects TA Enterprise 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, TA Enterprise is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. TA Enterprise can utilize new technology in the field of Hotels & Motels industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Loyalty marketing

– TA Enterprise 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at TA Enterprise 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 Hotels & Motels industry.

Better consumer reach

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– TA Enterprise 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.

Manufacturing automation

– TA Enterprise can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Hotels & Motels 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Hotels & Motels industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. TA Enterprise 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. TA Enterprise 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.

Creating value in data economy

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

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, TA Enterprise can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that TA Enterprise operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Hotels & Motels sector.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Hotels & Motels industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for TA Enterprise in the Hotels & Motels industry. Now TA Enterprise can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

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Threats TA Enterprise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of TA Enterprise are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that TA Enterprise is facing in Hotels & Motels sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Hotels & Motels industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. TA Enterprise can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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. TA Enterprise needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Hotels & Motels industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, TA Enterprise may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Hotels & Motels sector.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– TA Enterprise 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 Hotels & Motels 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, TA Enterprise 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 TA Enterprise prominent markets.

Consumer confidence and its impact on TA Enterprise 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 Hotels & Motels industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– TA Enterprise 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 Hotels & Motels industry regulations.

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 TA Enterprise.

Increasing wage structure of TA Enterprise

– 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 TA Enterprise.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– TA Enterprise 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– TA Enterprise has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Hotels & Motels industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, TA Enterprise needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Hotels & Motels 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of TA Enterprise Template, Example

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

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