Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, 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, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
Strengths of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd are -
Training and development
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. The sustainable margins have also helped HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is one of the leading players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in Singapore. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Singapore. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd staying ahead in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. This has provided HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Ability to lead change in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is one of the leading players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, but HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to focus more on services in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ less understanding of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry using digital technology.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has high operating costs in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to provide better information regarding Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is one of the leading players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Need for greater diversity
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd are -
Loyalty marketing
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. Now HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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.
Environmental challenges
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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. HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Increasing wage structure of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd
– 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry regulations.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd is facing in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry are lowering. It can presents HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd 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 HALCYON Agri Corp Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
