SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Air Courier sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd
Strengths of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Air Courier industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in Air Courier industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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 Air Courier 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Air Courier industry
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Air Courier industry. The sustainable margins have also helped A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Air Courier industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd staying ahead in the Air Courier industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Air Courier
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is one of the leading players in the Air Courier industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Air Courier industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management in the Air Courier industry
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Weaknesses of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is just above the Air Courier 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Air Courier industry, but A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to focus more on services in the Air Courier industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has high operating costs in the Air Courier industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Air Courier 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is one of the leading players in the Air Courier industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Air Courier industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Skills based hiring in Air Courier industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Air Courier industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Air Courier industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, A-Sonic Aerospace 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 Air Courier industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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.
A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd are -
Buying journey improvements
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Air Courier 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Air Courier industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Air Courier industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Air Courier sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Air Courier sector.
Manufacturing automation
– A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Air Courier 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Air Courier industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in the Air Courier industry. Now A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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.
Environmental challenges
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Air Courier industry.
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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd.
Regulatory challenges
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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 Air Courier industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd 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 Air Courier industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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 Air Courier industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– A-Sonic Aerospace 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.
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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in the Air Courier sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Air Courier industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd in Air Courier industry. The Air Courier 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.
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. A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Air Courier industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Increasing wage structure of A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace 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 A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.