Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Negri Sembilan Oil Palms, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms
2. Improving business portfolio management of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms
Strengths of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Negri Sembilan Oil Palms emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Crops industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Negri Sembilan Oil Palms staying ahead in the Crops industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Analytics focus
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Crops industry. The technology infrastructure of Malaysia 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Negri Sembilan Oil Palms digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Negri Sembilan Oil Palms are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms are -
Need for greater diversity
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Skills based hiring in Crops industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Crops industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but Negri Sembilan Oil Palms needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Crops industry over the last five years. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is one of the leading players in the Crops industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Crops industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has some of the most successful models in the Crops industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Malaysia, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has high operating costs in the Crops industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Negri Sembilan Oil Palms lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is just above the Crops 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.
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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Negri Sembilan Oil Palms vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Negri Sembilan Oil Palms Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Crops sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to increase its market reach. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Negri Sembilan Oil Palms in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Crops industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Crops 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. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Crops industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Negri Sembilan Oil Palms to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Threats Negri Sembilan Oil Palms External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Negri Sembilan Oil Palms is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Negri Sembilan Oil Palms with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Increasing wage structure of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms
– 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms.
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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms in the Crops 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. Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Crops sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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.
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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Crops industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Negri Sembilan Oil Palms Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms 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 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
