SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Riverview Rubber Estates (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Riverview Rubber Estates is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Riverview Rubber Estates
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Riverview Rubber Estates can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Riverview Rubber Estates, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Riverview Rubber Estates
2. Improving business portfolio management of Riverview Rubber Estates
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 Riverview Rubber Estates
Strengths of Riverview Rubber Estates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Riverview Rubber Estates are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Riverview Rubber Estates in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Riverview Rubber Estates has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Riverview Rubber Estates to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Training and development
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Analytics focus
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Ability to lead change in Crops
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Riverview Rubber Estates
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Riverview Rubber Estates does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Riverview Rubber Estates emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Riverview Rubber Estates is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Riverview Rubber Estates digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Riverview Rubber Estates has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Riverview Rubber Estates is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Weaknesses of Riverview Rubber Estates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Riverview Rubber Estates are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Riverview Rubber Estates products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Riverview Rubber Estates needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Riverview Rubber Estates supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Riverview Rubber Estates is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Riverview Rubber Estates vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Riverview Rubber Estates 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. Riverview Rubber Estates should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Riverview Rubber Estates needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Riverview Rubber Estates can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Riverview Rubber Estates is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Riverview Rubber Estates is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Riverview Rubber Estates to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Riverview Rubber Estates 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. Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Skills based hiring in Crops industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Riverview Rubber Estates, in the dynamic environment of Crops industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Riverview Rubber Estates has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Riverview Rubber Estates strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Riverview Rubber Estates Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Riverview Rubber Estates are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Riverview Rubber Estates is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Riverview Rubber Estates can utilize new technology in the field of Crops industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Riverview Rubber Estates can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Riverview Rubber Estates in the Crops industry. Now Riverview Rubber Estates can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Riverview Rubber Estates to increase its market reach. Riverview Rubber Estates 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
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Riverview Rubber Estates can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Riverview Rubber Estates can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Riverview Rubber Estates operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
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. Riverview Rubber Estates 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. Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Riverview Rubber Estates to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Riverview Rubber Estates to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Threats Riverview Rubber Estates External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Riverview Rubber Estates are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Environmental challenges
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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. Riverview Rubber Estates can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
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.
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. Riverview Rubber Estates can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Riverview Rubber Estates with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
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. Riverview Rubber Estates needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Riverview Rubber Estates has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
Increasing wage structure of Riverview Rubber Estates
– 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 Riverview Rubber Estates.
Regulatory challenges
– Riverview Rubber Estates 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.
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 Riverview Rubber Estates business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates prominent markets.
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 Riverview Rubber Estates.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Riverview Rubber Estates Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates 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 Riverview Rubber Estates needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.