Tekala (WMGH) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Forestry & Wood Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Tekala (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Tekala is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Tekala can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tekala, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tekala 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 Tekala can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Tekala
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tekala
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 Tekala
Strengths of Tekala | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tekala are -
Analytics focus
– Tekala 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 Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Learning organization
- Tekala 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 Tekala is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Tekala emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Tekala 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tekala 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
– Tekala is one of the most innovative firm in Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Digital Transformation in Forestry & Wood Products industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tekala digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tekala 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.
High brand equity
– Tekala has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tekala to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tekala 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tekala has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Forestry & Wood Products industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Tekala have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tekala has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Tekala 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tekala 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Forestry & Wood Products industry
– Tekala 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 Tekala | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tekala are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tekala has some of the most successful models in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Tekala should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tekala 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tekala is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Tekala to provide better information regarding Forestry & Wood Products products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Tekala supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Tekala is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tekala vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ less understanding of Tekala strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Tekala 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Tekala 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 Tekala can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tekala is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tekala has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Lack of clear differentiation of Tekala products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Tekala needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Tekala, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Tekala 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tekala is one of the leading players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in last five years.
Tekala Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Tekala are -
Manufacturing automation
– Tekala 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tekala has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Forestry & Wood Products industry. This can help Tekala to build a more holistic ecosystem for Tekala products in the Forestry & Wood Products industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tekala is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tekala 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tekala to increase its market reach. Tekala 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.
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 Tekala 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Tekala in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. Now Tekala can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tekala 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, Tekala 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tekala 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 Tekala to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Tekala can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tekala 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 Tekala to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tekala to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Tekala 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tekala 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.
Threats Tekala External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Tekala are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Tekala may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Forestry & Wood Products industry are lowering. It can presents Tekala 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tekala 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. Tekala can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tekala 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.
Environmental challenges
– Tekala 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. Tekala can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Forestry & Wood Products industry.
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. Tekala needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Forestry & Wood Products industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Tekala.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tekala 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tekala in Forestry & Wood Products industry. The Forestry & Wood Products 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.
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 Tekala in the Forestry & Wood Products sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tekala Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Tekala 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 Tekala 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 Tekala 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 Tekala 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 Tekala needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.