SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Innoprise Plantations (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Innoprise Plantations is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Innoprise Plantations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Innoprise Plantations can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Innoprise Plantations, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Innoprise Plantations
2. Improving business portfolio management of Innoprise Plantations
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Forestry & Wood Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Innoprise Plantations
Strengths of Innoprise Plantations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Innoprise Plantations are -
Ability to lead change in Forestry & Wood Products
– Innoprise Plantations is one of the leading players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in Malaysia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in Malaysia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Innoprise Plantations in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Innoprise Plantations in Forestry & Wood Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Innoprise Plantations has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Innoprise Plantations 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Innoprise Plantations 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.
High brand equity
– Innoprise Plantations has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Innoprise Plantations to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Innoprise Plantations comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Forestry & Wood Products 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
– Innoprise Plantations is one of the most innovative firm in Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Learning organization
- Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Innoprise Plantations emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Innoprise Plantations has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Innoprise Plantations staying ahead in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Innoprise Plantations has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– Innoprise Plantations has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Innoprise Plantations to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Innoprise Plantations to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Innoprise Plantations is one of the leading players in the Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Weaknesses of Innoprise Plantations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Innoprise Plantations are -
High dependence on Innoprise Plantations ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Innoprise Plantations still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Forestry & Wood Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Innoprise Plantations has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Innoprise Plantations has high operating costs in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Innoprise Plantations lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Innoprise Plantations strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Innoprise Plantations 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Innoprise Plantations 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Innoprise Plantations is just above the Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Innoprise Plantations has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Forestry & Wood Products industry over the last five years. Innoprise Plantations 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Innoprise Plantations, in the dynamic environment of Forestry & Wood Products industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Innoprise Plantations has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Innoprise Plantations 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Innoprise Plantations is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, but Innoprise Plantations needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Innoprise Plantations to focus more on services in the Forestry & Wood Products industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Innoprise Plantations 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Innoprise Plantations needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Forestry & Wood Products industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Innoprise Plantations can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Innoprise Plantations is planning to shift buying processes online.
Innoprise Plantations Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Innoprise Plantations are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Innoprise Plantations has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Forestry & Wood Products sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Innoprise Plantations to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Innoprise Plantations to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Innoprise Plantations 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Innoprise Plantations in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Forestry & Wood Products industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Innoprise Plantations can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Innoprise Plantations can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Forestry & Wood Products 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.
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. Innoprise Plantations can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Innoprise Plantations can develop new processes and procedures in Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Innoprise Plantations to increase its market reach. Innoprise Plantations 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Innoprise Plantations is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Innoprise Plantations can utilize new technology in the field of Forestry & Wood Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Innoprise Plantations 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, Innoprise Plantations 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Innoprise Plantations 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.
Threats Innoprise Plantations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Innoprise Plantations are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Innoprise Plantations 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry and other sectors.
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 Innoprise Plantations in the Forestry & Wood Products sector and impact the bottomline 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. Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations is facing in Forestry & Wood Products 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Innoprise Plantations 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. Innoprise Plantations needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Forestry & Wood Products industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Innoprise Plantations 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Innoprise Plantations 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry.
Increasing wage structure of Innoprise Plantations
– 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 Innoprise Plantations.
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 Innoprise Plantations business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Forestry & Wood Products industry are lowering. It can presents Innoprise Plantations with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Innoprise Plantations 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry regulations.
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 Innoprise Plantations Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations 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 Innoprise Plantations needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
