SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Samurai 2K Aerosol (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Samurai 2K Aerosol is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Samurai 2K Aerosol
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Samurai 2K Aerosol can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Samurai 2K Aerosol, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Samurai 2K Aerosol
2. Improving business portfolio management of Samurai 2K Aerosol
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Samurai 2K Aerosol
Strengths of Samurai 2K Aerosol | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Samurai 2K Aerosol are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Samurai 2K Aerosol has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Samurai 2K Aerosol to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Samurai 2K Aerosol to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Samurai 2K Aerosol is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Organizational Resilience of Samurai 2K Aerosol
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Samurai 2K Aerosol does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Samurai 2K Aerosol in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Samurai 2K Aerosol digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Samurai 2K Aerosol has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Samurai 2K Aerosol has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Chemical Manufacturing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Samurai 2K Aerosol have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Samurai 2K Aerosol in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Samurai 2K Aerosol has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Samurai 2K Aerosol to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Samurai 2K Aerosol is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Samurai 2K Aerosol is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Samurai 2K Aerosol has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Samurai 2K Aerosol staying ahead in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Samurai 2K Aerosol | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Samurai 2K Aerosol are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Samurai 2K Aerosol is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, but Samurai 2K Aerosol needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Samurai 2K Aerosol to focus more on services in the Chemical Manufacturing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
High dependence on Samurai 2K Aerosol ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Samurai 2K Aerosol still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemical Manufacturing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Samurai 2K Aerosol has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Samurai 2K Aerosol has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, Samurai 2K Aerosol needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Samurai 2K Aerosol is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Samurai 2K Aerosol is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Samurai 2K Aerosol to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Samurai 2K Aerosol has high operating costs in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Samurai 2K Aerosol lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Samurai 2K Aerosol, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Samurai 2K Aerosol has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, Samurai 2K Aerosol needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Samurai 2K Aerosol Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Samurai 2K Aerosol are -
Manufacturing automation
– Samurai 2K Aerosol can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Samurai 2K Aerosol to increase its market reach. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Chemical Manufacturing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Chemical Manufacturing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Samurai 2K Aerosol can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Samurai 2K Aerosol can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Samurai 2K Aerosol operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Samurai 2K Aerosol 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Samurai 2K Aerosol 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. Samurai 2K Aerosol can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Samurai 2K Aerosol can develop new processes and procedures in Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Samurai 2K Aerosol in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. Now Samurai 2K Aerosol can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Samurai 2K Aerosol can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Samurai 2K Aerosol External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Samurai 2K Aerosol are -
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 Samurai 2K Aerosol.
Environmental challenges
– Samurai 2K Aerosol 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. Samurai 2K Aerosol can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
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 Chemical Manufacturing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry regulations.
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. Samurai 2K Aerosol needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Samurai 2K Aerosol in Chemical Manufacturing industry. The Chemical Manufacturing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Samurai 2K Aerosol may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Samurai 2K Aerosol Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol 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 Samurai 2K Aerosol needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.