First Ship Lease Trust (FSLT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Rental & Leasing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for First Ship Lease Trust (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , First Ship Lease Trust is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of First Ship Lease Trust
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that First Ship Lease Trust can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the First Ship Lease Trust, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of First Ship Lease Trust
2. Improving business portfolio management of First Ship Lease Trust
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Rental & Leasing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of First Ship Lease Trust
Strengths of First Ship Lease Trust | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of First Ship Lease Trust are -
Ability to lead change in Rental & Leasing
– First Ship Lease Trust is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Rental & Leasing industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled First Ship Lease Trust in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– First Ship Lease Trust has one of the best training and development program in Services industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Rental & Leasing industry
– First Ship Lease Trust is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of First Ship Lease Trust in the Services sector have low bargaining power. First Ship Lease Trust has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps First Ship Lease Trust to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– First Ship Lease Trust is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Digital Transformation in Rental & Leasing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For First Ship Lease Trust digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Analytics focus
– First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing 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.
High brand equity
– First Ship Lease Trust has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled First Ship Lease Trust to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– First Ship Lease Trust has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Organizational Resilience of First Ship Lease Trust
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing First Ship Lease Trust does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of First Ship Lease Trust | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of First Ship Lease Trust are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that First Ship Lease Trust needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Rental & Leasing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at First Ship Lease Trust can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as First Ship Lease Trust is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, First Ship Lease Trust 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
First Ship Lease Trust has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Rental & Leasing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of First Ship Lease Trust, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Rental & Leasing industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, First Ship Lease Trust needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of First Ship Lease Trust products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, First Ship Lease Trust needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of First Ship Lease Trust still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Rental & Leasing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though First Ship Lease Trust has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at First Ship Lease Trust, in the dynamic environment of Rental & Leasing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. First Ship Lease Trust has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Rental & Leasing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
First Ship Lease Trust Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of First Ship Lease Trust are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Rental & Leasing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. First Ship Lease Trust 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. First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Loyalty marketing
– First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for First Ship Lease Trust in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Rental & Leasing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, First Ship Lease Trust can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that First Ship Lease Trust operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Rental & Leasing sector.
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 First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help First Ship Lease Trust to increase its market reach. First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of First Ship Lease Trust has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Rental & Leasing industry. This can help First Ship Lease Trust to build a more holistic ecosystem for First Ship Lease Trust products in the Rental & Leasing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, First Ship Lease Trust is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. First Ship Lease Trust can utilize new technology in the field of Rental & Leasing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– First Ship Lease Trust has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Rental & Leasing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled First Ship Lease Trust to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help First Ship Lease Trust to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– First Ship Lease Trust can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Threats First Ship Lease Trust External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of First Ship Lease Trust are -
Regulatory challenges
– First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for First Ship Lease Trust in Rental & Leasing industry. The Rental & Leasing 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.
Environmental challenges
– First Ship Lease Trust 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. First Ship Lease Trust can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry.
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. First Ship Lease Trust needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Rental & Leasing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 First Ship Lease Trust.
Increasing wage structure of First Ship Lease Trust
– 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 First Ship Lease Trust.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Rental & Leasing industry are lowering. It can presents First Ship Lease Trust with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Rental & Leasing sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on First Ship Lease Trust 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 Rental & Leasing industry and other sectors.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. First Ship Lease Trust 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of First Ship Lease Trust Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust 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 First Ship Lease Trust needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.