APFT (APFT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Schools
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for APFT (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , APFT is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that APFT can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the APFT, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which APFT 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 APFT can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of APFT
2. Improving business portfolio management of APFT
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Schools sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of APFT
Strengths of APFT | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of APFT are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of APFT in Schools industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– APFT has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
High brand equity
– APFT has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled APFT to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the Schools industry
– APFT is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– APFT is present in almost all the verticals within the Schools industry. This has provided APFT 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Schools industry
– APFT has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled APFT to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Schools industry. The sustainable margins have also helped APFT to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– APFT has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. APFT 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– APFT has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – APFT staying ahead in the Schools industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Schools
– APFT is one of the leading players in the Schools industry in Malaysia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Schools industry in Malaysia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled APFT in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– APFT has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Schools industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of APFT have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- APFT 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 APFT is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at APFT emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of APFT comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Schools 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.
Weaknesses of APFT | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of APFT are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that APFT needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Schools industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at APFT can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as APFT is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of APFT is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Schools industry, but APFT needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help APFT to focus more on services in the Schools industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on APFT ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of APFT still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Schools industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though APFT has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– APFT 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of APFT products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, APFT needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at APFT, in the dynamic environment of Schools industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. APFT has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, APFT 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, APFT is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help APFT to provide better information regarding Schools products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring in Schools industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at APFT 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of APFT, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Schools 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though APFT has some of the most successful models in the Schools industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. APFT should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
APFT Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of APFT are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for APFT 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 APFT to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– APFT has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Schools sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled APFT to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help APFT to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– APFT 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, APFT 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help APFT to increase its market reach. APFT 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, APFT can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that APFT operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Schools sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at APFT 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 Schools industry.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects APFT can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Schools industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. APFT 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. APFT 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 APFT 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Schools industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for APFT in the Schools industry. Now APFT can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, APFT 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 APFT to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Schools industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. APFT can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats APFT External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of APFT are -
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. APFT needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Schools industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– APFT 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. APFT can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Schools industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– APFT has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Schools industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, APFT needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Schools 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Schools industry are lowering. It can presents APFT with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Schools sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, APFT may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Schools sector.
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 Schools industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. APFT can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– APFT 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 Schools industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of APFT
– 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 APFT.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, APFT 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 APFT prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on APFT 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 Schools industry and other sectors.
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. APFT 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.
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 APFT business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of APFT Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at APFT 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 APFT 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 APFT 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 APFT 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 APFT needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.