NPC Resources Bhd (NPCR) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for NPC Resources Bhd (Malaysia)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , NPC Resources Bhd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of NPC Resources Bhd

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that NPC Resources Bhd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the NPC Resources Bhd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which NPC Resources Bhd 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 NPC Resources Bhd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of NPC Resources Bhd
2. Improving business portfolio management of NPC Resources Bhd
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 NPC Resources Bhd

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Strengths of NPC Resources Bhd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of NPC Resources Bhd are -

Learning organization

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry

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

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of NPC Resources Bhd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Crops 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

– NPC Resources Bhd is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.

Organizational Resilience of NPC Resources Bhd

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– NPC Resources Bhd is one of the leading players in the Crops 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of NPC Resources Bhd in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Ability to lead change in Crops

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

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Highly skilled collaborators

– NPC Resources Bhd 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 NPC Resources Bhd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

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Weaknesses of NPC Resources Bhd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of NPC Resources Bhd are -

Lack of clear differentiation of NPC Resources Bhd products

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

Products dominated business model

– Even though NPC Resources Bhd 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. NPC Resources Bhd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Skills based hiring in Crops industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at NPC Resources Bhd 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 dependence on NPC Resources Bhd ‘s star products

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

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, NPC Resources Bhd 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. NPC Resources Bhd 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 harness new channels of communication

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

High cash cycle compare to competitors

NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, NPC Resources Bhd needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of NPC Resources Bhd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Crops 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Crops industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Malaysia, NPC Resources Bhd 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 Crops industry.

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NPC Resources Bhd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of NPC Resources Bhd are -

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– NPC Resources Bhd 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 NPC Resources Bhd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help NPC Resources Bhd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Creating value in data economy

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Crops industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. NPC Resources Bhd 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. NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, NPC Resources Bhd 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 NPC Resources Bhd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Developing new processes and practices

– NPC Resources Bhd can develop new processes and procedures in Crops 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Loyalty marketing

– NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry

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

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help NPC Resources Bhd to increase its market reach. NPC Resources Bhd 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.

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Threats NPC Resources Bhd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of NPC Resources Bhd are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that NPC Resources Bhd is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for NPC Resources Bhd in Crops industry. The Crops 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, NPC Resources Bhd 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.

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.

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 NPC Resources Bhd in the Crops sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents NPC Resources Bhd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.

Easy access to finance

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

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 NPC Resources Bhd.

Environmental challenges

– NPC Resources Bhd 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. NPC Resources Bhd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.

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. NPC Resources Bhd 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on NPC Resources Bhd 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 Crops industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– NPC Resources Bhd 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of NPC Resources Bhd Template, Example

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

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