Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Keppel Telecom & Transportation is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Keppel Telecom & Transportation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Keppel Telecom & Transportation can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Keppel Telecom & Transportation, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Keppel Telecom & Transportation
2. Improving business portfolio management of Keppel Telecom & Transportation
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Misc. Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Keppel Telecom & Transportation
Strengths of Keppel Telecom & Transportation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Keppel Telecom & Transportation are -
High brand equity
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Keppel Telecom & Transportation to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Keppel Telecom & Transportation comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Transportation 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
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Transportation sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Transportation industry
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Keppel Telecom & Transportation to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Keppel Telecom & Transportation to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Keppel Telecom & Transportation staying ahead in the Misc. Transportation industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Keppel Telecom & Transportation emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Transportation industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Keppel Telecom & Transportation have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Transportation industry
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Keppel Telecom & Transportation in Misc. Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Misc. Transportation
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation is one of the leading players in the Misc. Transportation industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Misc. Transportation industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Keppel Telecom & Transportation in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Keppel Telecom & Transportation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Keppel Telecom & Transportation are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Keppel Telecom & Transportation has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Transportation industry over the last five years. Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Keppel Telecom & Transportation needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Transportation industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Keppel Telecom & Transportation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Keppel Telecom & Transportation is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Transportation industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Misc. Transportation industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Keppel Telecom & Transportation is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Transportation industry, but Keppel Telecom & Transportation needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Keppel Telecom & Transportation to focus more on services in the Misc. Transportation industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Keppel Telecom & Transportation is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Keppel Telecom & Transportation vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Keppel Telecom & Transportation is just above the Misc. Transportation industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Keppel Telecom & Transportation is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Keppel Telecom & Transportation to provide better information regarding Misc. Transportation products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Keppel Telecom & Transportation is one of the leading players in the Misc. Transportation industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Transportation industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of Keppel Telecom & Transportation strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Keppel Telecom & Transportation Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Keppel Telecom & Transportation are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Keppel Telecom & Transportation to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Keppel Telecom & Transportation to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Transportation industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Keppel Telecom & Transportation in the Misc. Transportation industry. Now Keppel Telecom & Transportation can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Transportation industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Keppel Telecom & Transportation can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Transportation 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Misc. Transportation industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Misc. Transportation industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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. Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Transportation 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Keppel Telecom & Transportation is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Keppel Telecom & Transportation can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
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. Keppel Telecom & Transportation can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Keppel Telecom & Transportation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Keppel Telecom & Transportation are -
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. Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Misc. Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Keppel Telecom & Transportation can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation in the Misc. Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Keppel Telecom & Transportation needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Transportation 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.
Environmental challenges
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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. Keppel Telecom & Transportation can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Transportation industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Misc. Transportation industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Transportation industry are lowering. It can presents Keppel Telecom & Transportation with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Transportation 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. Keppel Telecom & Transportation needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Misc. Transportation industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Keppel Telecom & Transportation may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Transportation sector.
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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Keppel Telecom & Transportation is facing in Misc. Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Keppel Telecom & Transportation Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation 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 Keppel Telecom & Transportation needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.