Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dairy Farm Intl Holdings, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Retail (Grocery) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings
Strengths of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dairy Farm Intl Holdings staying ahead in the Retail (Grocery) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Digital Transformation in Retail (Grocery) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dairy Farm Intl Holdings digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Learning organization
- Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dairy Farm Intl Holdings emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Retail (Grocery)
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is one of the leading players in the Retail (Grocery) industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Grocery) industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Dairy Farm Intl Holdings in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Grocery) sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Grocery) industry
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Grocery) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Grocery) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Grocery) industry. This has provided Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Grocery) industry
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry. The technology infrastructure of Singapore 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.
Weaknesses of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings are -
Skills based hiring in Retail (Grocery) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to provide better information regarding Retail (Grocery) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Grocery) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry.
Employees’ less understanding of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Retail (Grocery) industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is one of the leading players in the Retail (Grocery) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Grocery) industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Dairy Farm Intl Holdings, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Grocery) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on Dairy Farm Intl Holdings ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Grocery) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dairy Farm Intl Holdings vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Dairy Farm Intl Holdings Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Retail (Grocery) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Dairy Farm Intl Holdings in the Retail (Grocery) industry. Now Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dairy Farm Intl Holdings operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Grocery) sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Retail (Grocery) 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
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. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Grocery) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Grocery) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Grocery) 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Grocery) industry. This can help Dairy Farm Intl Holdings to build a more holistic ecosystem for Dairy Farm Intl Holdings products in the Retail (Grocery) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Dairy Farm Intl Holdings External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings are -
Environmental challenges
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Grocery) industry.
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.
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. Dairy Farm Intl Holdings needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Grocery) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings
– 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Grocery) industry are lowering. It can presents Dairy Farm Intl Holdings with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Grocery) sector.
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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings in the Retail (Grocery) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings prominent markets.
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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Retail (Grocery) industry and other sectors.
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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dairy Farm Intl Holdings Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings 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 Dairy Farm Intl Holdings needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
